Why Study Physics?

Physics is crucial to understanding the world around us, the world inside us, and the world beyond us. It is the most basic and fundamental science. Physics challenges our imaginations with concepts like relativity and string theory, and it leads to great discoveries, like computers and lasers, that change our lives.

Physics encompasses the study of the universe from the largest galaxies to the smallest subatomic particles. Moreover, it's the basis of many other sciences, including chemistry, oceanography, seismology, and astronomy. All are easily accessible with a bachelor's degree in physics.

The importance of physics isn't limited to the “hard sciences.” Increasingly, physicists are turning their talents to molecular biology, biochemistry, and biology itself. Even medicine has a niche for physicists, and since medical physicists are hard to come by, they are much in demand.

Physics also undergirds many new technologies. Cell phones, the Internet, and MRIs are only a few examples of the physics-based technological developments that have revolutionized our world. Many theoretical and experimental physicists work as engineers, and many electrical and mechanical engineers have physics degrees.

A physics education equips a person to work in many different and interesting places—in industrial and government labs, on college campuses, and in the astronaut corps. In addition, many physics grads leave the lab behind and work at newspapers and magazines, in government, and even on Wall Street—places where their problem-solving abilities and analytical skills are great assets.

So—physics is interesting, relevant, and it can prepare you for great jobs in a wide variety of places. Shouldn't you take a physics course?

—American Physical Society