Fundamental theoretical physics

The progress of fundamental physics over the 400 years of its existence was absolutely spectacular, and shaped the modern world.

Science was bootstrapped from the darkness of the middle ages by experiment. Physics as a fundamental science is an empirical discipline. The experiment was always ahead of theory. Almost all laws of physics were discovered experimentally.

Classical mechanics (R. Hook), geometrical and physical optics (R. Hook, T. Young, A.-J. Fresnel), Maxwell equations (M. Faraday), relativity (A. Michelson and E. Morley , M. Faraday), quantum mechanics (synthesis of many experiments), quantum field theory (HEP experiments).

The role of theory was:

1. to carefully classify new knowledge (using the mathematical method)

2. and ask new questions

This role is absolutely crucial. Without theory, purely experimental physics would never have achieved anything serious.

But, at the same time, we must also keep in mind that theory has always been driven by the stream of experimental data.

During these 400 years, the field was always growing. A new discovery always lead to more questions, and therefore the growth was essentially exponential.