早稲田理工2007 II

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Section A

Why study physics? For two reasons. First, physics is one of the most fundamental of the sciences. Scientists of all disciplines make use of the ideas of physics from chemists who study the structure of molecules to paleontologists who try to reconstruct how dinosaurs walked.

The principles of physics play an essential role in the scientific quest to understand how human activities affect the atmosphere and oceans, and in the search for alternative sources of energy.

Physics is also the foundation of all engineering and technology. No engineer could design any kind of practical device without first understanding the basic principles involved.

But there's another reason. The study of physics is an adventure. You will find it challenging, sometimes frustrating, occasionally painful, and often richly rewarding and satisfying. It will appeal to your sense of beauty as well as to your rational intelligence. Our present understanding of the physical world has been built on the foundations laid by scientific giants such as Galileo, Newton, Maxwell, and Einstein, and their influence has extended far beyond science to affect profoundly the ways in which we live and think.

You can share some of the excitement of their discoveries when you learn to use physics to solve practical problems and to gain insight into everyday phenomena. If you've ever wondered why the sky is blue, how radio waves can travel through empty space, or how a satellite stays in orbit, you can find the answers by using fundamental physics. Above all, you will come to see physics as a towering achievement of the human, intellect in its quest to understand our world and ourselves.

Section B

Physics is an experimental science. Physicists observe the phenomena of nature and try to find patterns and principles that relate these phenomena. These patterns are called physical theories or, when they are very well established and of broad use, physical laws or principles.

Calling an idea a theory does not mean that it's just a random thought or an unproven concept.

Rather, a theory is an explanation of natural phenomena based on observation and accepted fundamental principles. The development of physical theory requires creativity at every stage. The physicist has to learn to ask appropriate questions, design experiments to try to answer the questions, and draw appropriate conclusions from the results. Galileo dropped light and heavy objects from the top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa to find out whether their rates of fall were the same or different. Galileo recognized that only experimental investigation could answer this question. From examining the results of his experiments, he made the inductive leap to the principle, or theory, that the acceleration of a falling body is independent of its weight. The development of physical theories such as Galileo's is always a two-way process that starts and ends with observations or experiments. This development often takes an indirect path, and the discarding of unsuccessful theories in favor of more promising ones. Physics is not simply a collection of facts and principles; it is also the process by which we arrive at general principles that describe how the physical universe behaves.