Physics

Physics is the science of motion. This includes the motion of everything from galaxies and stars to baseballs and atoms. Since many other sciences are now at the point of using the motion of atoms to understand phenomena in their field, physics is of fundamental importance to current advances in virtually all the sciences. The importance of physics to biology, for example, is illustrated by the fact that a physicist, Francis Crick, co-discovered the structure of DNA and another physicist, George Gamow, was the first to suggest that its nucleotide groups were coded information for the construction of proteins.

Also, no science has been more influential in shaping our overall view of the world. For example, the simple idea that natural phenomena on Earth share the same rules that govern celestial affairs can be traced to Isaac Newton. Currently, our world view is continually enlarged and modified by physics discoveries ranging from cosmologial implications of the Hubble Space Telescope's images to new computational technologies made possible by advances in solid state physics.

In addition to making practical contributions to technology, physics addresses the fundamental questions regarding the nature of the universe. Physicists ask such questions as: What are the fundamental constituents and processes of nature? How old is the universe? How big is the universe? How will it all end?

Although primarily a service department, the physics program at ENMU also has a productive research program that focuses on gravitational physics. Much of this work is done in collaboration with a small group of physicists and astronomers from Russia and Iran. Recent work has included a theoretical investigation of the stability of hierarchical triple star systems. This work was motivated by the existence of certain apparent eclipsing binary stellar systems whose light variations very slightly violate the predictions of general relativity and stellar structure physics. It is not thought that these anomalous light variations signal new physics but rather are due to unseen third stellar companions in the suspect systems. Current plans include the use of an interferometer constructed by the Magdalena Ridge Observatory to see these putative third bodies for the first time.

View the Bachelor of Science in Physics degree plan.
View the Bachelor of Science in Physics with Secondary Licensure degree plan.

In addition we offer courses of study leading to a minor in chemical physics, geophysics and physics.