Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental
constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related
entities of energy and force. Physics is one of the most fundamental
scientific disciplines, with its main goal being to understand how the
universe behaves. A scientist who specializes in the field of physics is
called a physicist.
Physics is one of the oldest academic disciplines and, through its inclusion
of astronomy, perhaps the oldest. Over much of the past two millennia,
physics, chemistry, biology, and certain branches of mathematics were a part
of natural philosophy, but during the Scientific Revolution in the 17th
century these natural sciences emerged as unique research endeavors in their
own right.