Physical Science

Covering physical astronomy, physics, and chemistry, this book traces how these sciences developed. It begins with the early astronomy of Egypt and the physical ideas of ancient Greece, and it examines how the work of Ptolemy and Aristotle shaped later thinking. The discussion then moves to the scientific revolution, where Galileo's use of the telescope and advances in the study of motion and light changed the field.

The later chapters explore Newton's theory of motion and gravity, the study of electricity and magnetism, and the Big Bang model of the universe. Readers also learn how stars evolve, how chemical elements form, and what radioactivity is. The book closes with quantum mechanics, black holes, and the 2013 discovery of the Higgs boson by the Large Hadron Collider.