40 Interesting Physics Facts for Curious Minds

Physics gives all the “how’s” in a world of “what’s.” These physics facts will either leave you with answers or even more questions about this world.

Quick Facts

Essential Facts

Interesting Facts

Physics is the science of matter and its behavior.
Comes from the Greek word, physikḗ, which means “science of nature.”
Physics was recognized as a discipline in the 19th century.
It aims to understand how the universe works.
It originated from astronomy, mathematics, and natural philosophy in 3000 B.C.

The ancient civilizations used religious beliefs of heavenly bodies (astronomy) to explain nature.
650 B.C. was the age of natural philosophy.
Leucippus was the first to reject religious explanations. According to him, every event has a natural cause.
Thales was the first physicist. He believed the world was only built from one element: water.
Aristotle developed Aristotelian physics in 300 B.C., but most of it was speculative and proven wrong by other philosophers.
Archimedes’ encounter with buoyancy in 250 BC is the first fundamental physics discovery.
The Theory of Impetus explains projectile motion. It was formulated by John Philoponus in 500 B.C.
In 1514, Copernicus introduced Heliocentrism. Before this, it was believed that the sun orbits around the Earth.
Galileo Galilei discovered that objects fall at the same time despite differences in mass.
Newton formed the Laws of Motion in 1687.

Galileo discovered the law of free fall after dropping two spheres from the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
An apple didn’t fall on Newton’s head when he discovered the law of universal gravitation. He simply wondered why apples fall downward rather than sideways.
A “Eureka moment” references Archimedes’ enthusiasm when he discovered buoyancy (The fact that he ran out naked is a minor detail.).
The universe is constantly expanding, getting faster and colder as time passes.
Time travel is possible – you’re doing it now, moving forward in time.

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