For the longest time this was the only field of physics. It was the field of the likes of Isaac Newton and concerns the motion of rigid objects. Then came question #6.
Isaac Newton, Joseph-Louis Lagrange - Mechanical engineering
Once two separate fields they were united by James Clark Maxwell. This theory describes the (classical) interplay of charges and fields.
James Clark Maxwell, Michael Faraday - The radio, television, light bulb, electricity, etc. (Not to mention Electrical Engineering)
The macroscopic behaviour of heat.
Lord Kelvin, James Watt - The steam engine, the combustion engine, the automobile, the refrigerator, etc.
The result of applying question #3 to a microscopic system where quantum effects reign supreme and probability theory dominates.
Stephan Boltzmann, Willard Gibbs - Needed for the theory of question #11
The physics of things that flows.
Daniel Bernoulli, George Gabriel Stokes - Aerodynamics, the airplane, turbines, pumps, etc.
Developed by heavy hitters like Bohr, Dirac and Schrodinger this field concerns the physics of the microscopic (provided nothing is moving too fast).
Niels Bohr, Erwin Schrodinger - See question #11
Supernova, pulsars, galaxy formation. These are the topics of concern in this area of physics.
Galileo Galilei, Edwin Hubble - An understanding of our place in the universe
This field of physics comes from reconciling question #6 with Einstein's Theory of Special Relativity and is considered the most accurate physical theory ever created.
Richard Feynman, P. A. M. Dirac - Particles physics and greatly contributes to the field of question #11
Description of the Field
Name of Field
Famous Contributors - Famous Inventions
Often considered a slightly different field than question #7, this is the field which studies the origins of the universe and the Big Bang.
Stephen Hawking, Roger Penrose - An understanding of life, the universe and everything
A newer field of physics which seeks to describe things like protein folding, behaviour of cell membranes, the physics of enzymes, etc. Also things like population dynamics.
Linus Pauling, G. N. Ramachandran - An understanding of the workings of DNA and RNA as well as how proteins are created
The largest field of physics. It concerns the physics of many, many quantum particles and areas such as Superconductivity, Bose-Einstein Condensates and Solid State Devices.
Phil Anderson, Lev Landau - Transistors, the microchip, LCD screens, MRI's, the digital age, etc.
This less well known but extremely well funded branch of physics investigates things like the way metals cool, the way plastics fracture, the physics of metallurgy, etc.
(None that I can think of) - Stronger metals that don't fracture, improved metallurgy,
The physics of chemical reactions as well as molecular bonds and other things that cross-over with the field of Chemistry.
Linus Pauling, William Bragg (either) - Physical and Quantum chemistry and everything that comes with it
This field of physics which concerns the behaviour and structure of atomic nuclei became very popular during 1939-1945.
Enrico Fermi, J. Robert Oppenheimer - The bomb, nuclear reactors, medical isotopes, etc.
The very trendy String Theory and Loop Quantum Gravity are examples from this field of study that attempts to unify all four of the forces in nature.
Ed Witten, Lee Smolin - We're still waiting
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How many branches of physics can you name? Just enter the field of physics, for example "Nanophysics" (no that one isn't on the quiz0. Nominate if you like this!
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