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The Relation of Physics to Other Sciences
3-1 Introduction
Physics is the most fundamental and all-inclusive of the sciences, and has 3-1 Introduction
had a profound effect on all scientific development. In fact, physics is the present-
day equivalent of what used to be called natural philosophy, from which most of 3-2 Chemistry
our modern sciences arose. Students of many fields find themselves studying 3-3 Biology
physics because of the basic role it plays in all phenomena. In this chapter we
shall try to explain what the fundamental problems in the other sciences are, 3-4 Astronomy
but of course it is impossible in so small a space really to deal with plex, 3-5 Geology
subtle, beautiful matters in these other fields. Lack of space also prevents our
discussing the relation of physics to engineering, industry, society, and war, or 3-6 Psychology
even the most remarkable relationship between mathematics and physics. (Mathe- 3-7 How did it get that way?
matics is not a science from our point of view, in the sense that it is not a natural
science. The test of its validity is not experiment.) We must, incidentally, make it
clear from the beginning that if a thing is not a science, it is not necessarily bad.
For example, love is not a science. So, if something is said not to be a science,
it does not mean that there is something wrong with it; it just means tha