Physicist (nonfiction)

Portrait, attributed to Murillo, of Galileo in prison. Galileo is depicted as holding a nail and gazing at diagrams he has scratched on the wall of his prison cell. Underneath a diagram of the Earth orbiting the Sun (barely visible in this image), the words "E pur si muove" appear (not legible in this image). Circa 1643-1646.

A physicist is a scientist who studies the interactions of matter and energy across the physical universe.

Physicists study a wide range of phenomena in many branches of their field, spanning all length scales: from sub-atomic particles of which all ordinary matter is made (particle physics), to molecular length scales of chemical and biological interest, to cosmological length scales encompassing the Universe as a whole.

Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate causes of phenomena, and usually frame their understanding in mathematical terms.

The term "physicist" was coined by William Whewell in his 1840 book The Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences.

In the News

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  The Joker imprisons, tortures famed physicist Galileo Galilei. Church authorities say they are "powerless to intervene".

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  Dark Side of the Moon is "best rock album ever", according to new computational model of Sir Isaac Newton.

Fiction cross-reference

• Gray light
• Gnomon algorithm
• High-energy literature
• Mathematician
• Mathematics

Nonfiction cross-reference

• Mathematician (nonfiction)
• Mathematics (nonfiction)
• Light (nonfiction)
• Physics (nonfiction)

External links:

• Physicist @ Wikipedia