page_title: Physicist
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Physicist / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Drawing of an electrostatics experiment by English scientist Francis Hauksbee (or Hawksbee)(1660-1713) using an early electrostatic generator of his design, drawn by French clergyman and scientist Jean-Antoine Nollet, from his 1767 book Leçons de Physique. The electrostatic generator (right) consisted of a hollow ball of glass rotated by the man turning the crank. The friction of a man's hands on the ball created a charge of static electricity, which was conducted by the chain to the metal bar suspended by insulating silk cords. This experiment apparently demonstrated electrostatic induction. The woman (center) standing on a pad which insulated her from the ground, holding a metal plate in her right hand near another one hanging from the bar, had an electric charge induced in her body, which was communicated to the metal serving plate she is holding in her left hand. The man at right is performing some experiment with the charge; possibly demonstrating that fine powder sprayed on the plate is repelled into the air. Alternatively, the flask he is holding may be a Leyden jar which he is charging from the plate. The drawing illustrates how scientific research was conducted during the Enlightenment, as a cultured pastime of the genteel educated elite, performed in drawing rooms and salons, with women taking part.
context_page_description: A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe.
  Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate causes of phenomena, and usually frame their understanding in mathematical terms.
  Physicists work across a wide range of research fields, spanning all length scales: from sub-atomic and particle physics, through biological physics, to cosmological length scales encompassing the universe as a whole.
  The field generally includes two types of physicists: experimental physicists who specialize in the observation of physical phenomena and the analysis of experiments, and theoretical physicists who specialize in mathematical modeling of physical systems to rationalize, explain and predict natural phenomena.
  Physicists can apply their knowledge towards solving practical problems or to developing new technologies.
context_section_description: The study and practice of physics is based on an intellectual ladder of discoveries and insights from ancient times to the present. Many mathematical and physical ideas used today found their earliest expression in the work of ancient civilizations, such as the Babylonian astronomers and Egyptian engineers, the Phoenician scholar Thales of Miletus, Euclid in Ptolemaic Egypt, and the Greek writers Archimedes and Aristarchus. Roots also emerged in ancient Asian cultures such as India and China, and particularly the Islamic medieval period, which saw the development of scientific methodology emphasising experimentation, such as the work of Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen) in the 11th century, for example. The modern scientific worldview and the bulk of physics education can be said to flow from the scientific revolution in Europe, starting with the work of Galileo Galilei and Johannes Kepler in the early 1600s. Newton's laws of motion and Newton's law of universal gravitation were formulated in the 17th century.  The experimental discoveries of Faraday and the theory of Maxwell's equations of electromagnetism were developmental high points during the 19th century. Many physicists contributed to the development of quantum mechanics in the early-to-mid 20th century. New knowledge in the early 21st century includes a large increase in understanding physical cosmology.
  The broad and general study of nature, natural philosophy, was divided into several fields in the 19th century, when the concept of "science" received its modern shape. Specific categories emerged, such as "biology" and "biologist", "physics" and "physicist", "chemistry" and "chemist", among other technical fields and titles. The term physicist was coined by William Whewell (also the originator of the term "scientist") in his 1840 book The Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences.
caption: In an 18th-century experiment in "natural philosophy" (later to be called "physics") English scientist Francis Hauksbee works with an early electrostatic generator.
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