Mechanics, the study of motion, was the first field ever studied by physicists. Mechanics is the most obvious thing to study, because it can be seen all around. The ancient physicists saw that things moved, and wanted to know how and why. Mechanics birthed the idea of physical thought, and later the idea of physical experiment. In this section you will learn the fundamental laws governing the motion of all things, the way forces work, and how gravity affects us all.
It is easy to find areas to put knowledge of mechanics to use. Things move all around us, and all those moving things obey the laws of mechanics. Engineers find the limits of their machines through the laws of motion, astronomers can plot orbits using the formulas discovered by Newton and Kepler, and even such simple tasks such as turning a stuck bolt can be made easier by knowing the laws of motion.