Newtonian
mechanics was found to be inadequate in the early years of this century- it’s
all right in “everyday life”, but for objects
moving at high speeds (near speed of light) it is incorrect, and must be
replaced by special relativity
(introduced by Einstein in 1905); for the objects that are extremely small (near the size of atom) it fails
for different reasons, and is superseded by quantum mechanics (developed by Bohr, Schrödinger, Heisenberg, and
many others). For objects that are both
very fast and very small (as in common in modern physics), a mechanics that
combines relativity and quantum principles is in order: this relativistic
quantum mechanics is known as quantum
field theory.
- Teacher: Arunabha Saha