Question
Two principal thrusts in physics are unification and reduction. Justify by giving illustrations.
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Answer
By unification we mean explanation of diverse physical phenomena in terms of a few concepts and laws. As an example, the law of gravitation describes the motion under gravity, motion of Moon and satellites as well as motion of planets. Again, Maxwell's equations of electromagnetism govern all electric and magnetic phenomena. By reductionism approach we try to derive the properties of a bigger, more complex, system from the properties and interactions of its constituent simpler parts. As an example thermodynamics deals with bulk systems in terms of macroscopic quantities like temperature, internal energy, entropy etc. The kinetic theory and statistical mechanics interpreted these quantities in terms of the properties of the molecular constituents of the bulk system.
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