In this beautifully illustrated and highly accessible history of the subject, author Robert Snedden looks at what has been described as the fundamental science - the one that underpins all others.

The history of physics is expansive. From its roots in the ancient sciences of astronomy and geometry to the discovery of the law of gravity, the analysis of matter and the developments in electromagnetism and thermodynamics, readers are taken on an illuminating journey through humankind's attempts to understand what makes our world work.

Chapters on the study of motion; the analysis of gases; the nature of light; energy; atoms; radioactivity; the theory of relativity and particle theory show how scientists have revealed information that has led to the desire to know even more as we drill down into the minutiae of the science of physics. It is a brilliant introduction to the study of the reality of the world and everything in it.