who is the father of physics and why he is chosen?

Answer 1

There is no "father" of physics, but I suspect you can say Newton started the more modern era of physics.

Answer 2

Physics (or to give the subject its full name, The Study of Natural Philosophy) has been studied since the dawn of human existance.

We have a desire as a race to learn how our universe works. From the first man (or woman) who learned that some berries could be eaten, others weren't so good for you, mankind has strived to understand these phenomena.

I do not want to start a religious discussion but I would like to say that it is for this reason the concept of God was first invoked. Early man needed an explanation for the phenomena that they saw.

Take fire, for example. When mankind figured out that they could keep a flame alive by 'feeding' it more sticks. That is science! Physics is the father of science, for sure. Who is the father of physics? Well, I am afraid that will never be known.

At some point mankind realised that it was a lot easier breaking into a coconut if you used a rock. That's physics. At some point mankind realised that if they wore the skin of a dead animal they could keep warm. That's physics.

You could say that the father of Physics was the first man to ask the question 'why'. And this is what separates us from the other animals. We are the only animals to ask 'why'.

Answer 3

Most historians would probably pick Galileo.

His conflict with the church established that science should be based on observation and deduction, and not overriden by religious dogma and papal bull. This lifted science - and physics in paritcular - out of the dark ages imposed by the church and made all you see today possible.

However, you could also make the case for Newton - who was born in the year Galileo died - because he was the first to truly use mathematics at the heart of science and so make extensive quantitative predictions. To do this he invented an entire new branch of mathematics which he called fluxions.

Answer 4

Newton. The concussion from the apple was a big sacrafice. His actions to document interactions between objects was a first step toward all the other areas of physics.

Answer 5

I would say Sir Isaac Newton; with his three laws of motion, theory of gravity and work on the diffraction of light, as well as the invention of calculus, without which we would never have got to the moon, among other things.

Answer 6

I don't think there has ever been a formal discussion on this distinction but I think it would clearly be Max Planck because he was the first to describe the relationship betweeen mass and energy.

Answer 7

It really depends on what kind of physics your looking at. For mechanical physics, many would say Archimedes. For quantum pysics, many would Neils Bohr

Answer 8

Newton because he stated the gravity law!