1, the embryonic period of physics (from ancient times to1mid-6th century)
The embryonic period of science can also be called the period of empirical science and natural philosophy. This period, including physics, has not yet differentiated from natural philosophy, which is equivalent to the ancient period of the development of physics. This period was generally before the European Renaissance and the extensive development of capitalist relations of production, but before the end of the Ming Dynasty in China. During this period, China and ancient Greece formed two complementary cultural centers. Empirical science has gradually differentiated from productive labor. At this time, the main methods are intuitive observation (including the description of phenomena and the preliminary summary of experience) and philosophical speculation. Knowledge of astronomy, mechanics, heat, acoustics and optics (geometrical optics) related to production activities and people's direct senses was first developed. In addition to Greek statics, China was in a leading position in the above aspects.
2. Classical physical period (1from the middle of 6th century to the end of 9th century)
At the end of 15, capitalism began to sprout and social productive forces developed, which promoted the process of technology and science. /kloc-in the middle of the 6th century, Copernicus put forward "Heliocentrism"; /kloc-In the late 7th century, Newton established a classical mechanical system, which marked the birth of modern physics. After that, classical thermodynamics and electromagnetism were established one after another, forming a relatively complete classical physics system. During this period, the method of combining systematic observation experiment with strict mathematical reasoning was also established. It can be further divided into the establishment and development stages of 1600- 1800 classical mechanics and the development stages of various departments of 1800- 1900 classical physics.
3. Modern physics revolution period (20th century to present)
At the beginning of the 20th century, the establishment of relativity and quantum mechanics promoted the rapid development of new sciences such as the unified theory of material structure and interaction and astrophysics, and made great progress in experimental means, mathematical tools and logical reasoning methods. Physics is also infiltrating into other disciplines, and a large number of interdisciplinary disciplines have emerged. The laws and methods of physics are constantly expanding its scope.
The period of modern physics can be divided into three stages: the first stage (1905- 193 1 year) is characterized by the wide application of relativity and quantum concepts, and it ends with the establishment and formation of quantum mechanics, which is the fourth basic physical theory after Newton. The second stage is subatomic physics (1932-1954), and physics goes deep into a new material level, that is, the world of atomic nuclei. The third stage (1955 till now) is the sub-nuclear physics stage, that is, the cosmic physics stage. The remarkable feature of this stage is to study the phenomenon of new time-intermediate scale.
The development of modern physics has aroused people's understanding of matter, motion, space, time, law of causality and even life phenomena, as well as great changes in their understanding of the nature of physics theory. With the advancement of physics to other disciplines, a series of new physics departments and marginal sciences have emerged, providing new ideas and methods for modern science and technology.