When Did Physics Begin? - A talk by Francis Everitt, Stanford University January 27, 2012

C.W. Francis Everitt is a Professor in the W.W. Hansen Experimental Physics Laboratory at Stanford University. His primary interests lie in theoretical and experimental gravitational physics. More about his work can be found through his website.

In history, as in other matters, words bemuse. For most physicists (to use a term invented in 1840), the history of their subject dramatically falls into two halves, classical from Newton to 1900, modern from 1900 to now. Professor Everitt shall argue that this terminology constructed in 1911 embodies several delusions, and that physics began not with Newton (still less with Galileo) but at a much later time. It may be thought that these are mere matters of definition, and it is indeed interesting that in the organizational structure of the French Academy shortly before its suppression in 1793, agriculture and botany were classified under physics. The historical question is why such a classification seemed reasonable in 1793 and preposterous a century later. In this lecture, Professor Everitt intends to advance a specific view of when physics actually began, and explore its implications for the subject we know, love, and partially understand.

Official Website: http://www.hst.umn.edu/events/colloquia.html