To many, if not most lay persons, physics is just about the study of forces, and their effects on our everyday objects and experience; think the hackneyed high school physics questions on finding the velocity of the billiard balls after collisions, the time of flight of a projectile and the distance travelled by some toy cart etc. Meanwhile, to sci-fi enthusiasts, physics revolves around the theoretical studies of superstrings and wormholes.
The truth is, these are almost accurate.
Its dictionary definition being “the study of matter, energy, and the interaction between them”, physics encompasses everything in the universe, from tiny subatomic particles to colossal galaxies, from the energy of a ground state electron to that of one moving near the speed of light, and from the weakest yet widely observable gravitational force to the strongest yet obscure strong nuclear force — way beyond just billiards balls! And as a result of this vastness of knowledge to be covered in a Physics degree, the emphasis would be on introducing the key theories and concepts in the major fields of physics (classical and modern physics), and more importantly, the problem-solving and analytical skills as well as numeracy needed to understand them.