Coulomb’s law states that the force between two electric charges varies as the inverse square of their separation. Direct tests, such as those performed with a special torsion balance by the French physicist Charles-Augustin de Coulomb, for whom the law is named, can be at best approximate. A very sensitive indirect test, devised by the English scientist and clergyman Joseph Priestley (following an observation by Benjamin Franklin) but first realized by the English physicist and chemist Henry Cavendish (1771), relies on the mathematical demonstration that no electrical changes occurring outside a closed metal shell—as, for example, by connecting it to a high voltage source—produce any effect inside if the inverse square law holds. Since modern amplifiers can detect minute voltage changes, this test can be made very sensitive. It is typical of the class of null measurements in which only the theoretically expected behaviour leads to no response and any hypothetical departure from theory gives rise to a response of calculated magnitude. It has been shown in this way that if the force between charges, r apart, is proportional not to 1/r² but to 1/r^2+x, then x is less than 2 × 10⁻⁹.

According to the relativistic theory of the hydrogen atom proposed by the English physicist P.A.M. Dirac (1928), there should be two different excited states exactly coinciding in energy. Measurements of spectral lines resulting from transitions in which these states were involved hinted at minute discrepancies, however. Some years later (c. 1950) Willis E. Lamb, Jr., and Robert C. Retherford of the United States, employing the novel microwave techniques that wartime radar contributed to peacetime research, were able not only to detect the energy difference between the two levels directly but to measure it rather precisely as well. The difference in energy, compared to the energy above the ground state, amounts to only 4 parts in 10 million, but this was one of the crucial pieces of evidence that led to the development of quantum electrodynamics, a central feature of the modern theory of fundamental particles (see subatomic particle: Quantum electrodynamics).

Direct solution of fundamental equations

Insofar as the Sun and planets, with their attendant satellites, can be treated as concentrated masses moving under their mutual gravitational influences, they form a system that has not so overwhelmingly many separate units as to rule out step-by-step calculation of the motion of each. Modern high-speed computers are admirably adapted to this task and are used in this way to plan space missions and to decide on fine adjustments during flight. Most physical systems of interest, however, are either composed of too many units or are governed not by the rules of classical mechanics but rather by quantum mechanics, which is much less suited for direct computation.

Dissection

The mechanical behaviour of a body is analyzed in terms of Newton’s laws of motion by imagining it dissected into a number of parts, each of which is directly amenable to the application of the laws or has been separately analyzed by further dissection so that the rules governing its overall behaviour are known. A very simple illustration of the method is given by the arrangement in Figure 5A, where two masses are joined by a light string passing over a pulley. The heavier mass, m₁, falls with constant acceleration, but what is the magnitude of the acceleration? If the string were cut, each mass would experience the force, m₁g or m₂g, due to its gravitational attraction and would fall with acceleration g. The fact that the string prevents this is taken into account by assuming that it is in tension and also acts on each mass. When the string is cut just above m₂, the state of accelerated motion just before the cut can be restored by applying equal and opposite forces (in accordance with Newton’s third law) to the cut ends, as in Figure 5B; the string above the cut pulls the string below upward with a force T, while the string below pulls that above downward to the same extent. As yet, the value of T is not known. Now if the string is light, the tension T is sensibly the same everywhere along it, as may be seen by imagining a second cut, higher up, to leave a length of string acted upon by T at the bottom and possibly a different force T′ at the second cut. The total force T − T′ on the string must be very small if the cut piece is not to accelerate violently, and, if the mass of the string is neglected altogether, T and T′ must be equal. This does not apply to the tension on the two sides of the pulley, for some resultant force will be needed to give it the correct accelerative motion as the masses move. This is a case for separate examination, by further dissection, of the forces needed to cause rotational acceleration. To simplify the problem one can assume the pulley to be so light that the difference in tension on the two sides is negligible. Then the problem has been reduced to two elementary parts—on the right the upward force on m₂ is T − m₂g, so that its acceleration upward is T/m₂ − g; and on the left the downward force on m₁ is m₁g − T, so that its acceleration downward is g − T/m₁. If the string cannot be extended, these two accelerations must be identical, from which it follows that T = 2m₁m₂g/(m₁ + m₂) and the acceleration of each mass is g(m₁ − m₂)/(m₁ + m₂). Thus, if one mass is twice the other (m₁ = 2m₂), its acceleration downward is g/3.

A liquid may be imagined divided into small volume elements, each of which moves in response to gravity and the forces imposed by its neighbours (pressure and viscous drag). The forces are constrained by the requirement that the elements remain in contact, even though their shapes and relative positions may change with the flow. From such considerations are derived the differential equations that describe fluid motion (see fluid mechanics).

The dissection of a system into many simple units in order to describe the behaviour of a complex structure in terms of the laws governing the elementary components is sometimes referred to, often with a pejorative implication, as reductionism. Insofar as it may encourage concentration on those properties of the structure that can be explained as the sum of elementary processes to the detriment of properties that arise only from the operation of the complete structure, the criticism must be considered seriously. The physical scientist is, however, well aware of the existence of the problem (see below Simplicity and complexity). If he is usually unrepentant about his reductionist stance, it is because this analytical procedure is the only systematic procedure he knows, and it is one that has yielded virtually the whole harvest of scientific inquiry. What is set up as a contrast to reductionism by its critics is commonly called the holistic approach, whose title confers a semblance of high-mindedness while hiding the poverty of tangible results it has produced.