Hmmm. Maybe. "Physics" sounds like it is an invented word - could be a form of contraction for "physical sciences" in which case it is plural. I don't have time this afternoon to look it up in my OED, but I will try to get to it.
BTW, I agree that physics is/are fun. It was my favorite science subject.
Another one: data v. datum. Strictly speaking, it should be "data are."
''Data'' is not as clear regarding number. If we were speaking Latin, ''data'' is inarguably plural -- but we're not. This is usually resolved by one flavour or another of a combination of dialect and substantivity, to wit, in American English (sic), that the construction ''The data is unambiguous upon this point.'' is substantively identical to ''The (set of) data is unambiguous...etc.'', which usage in the second example, fully expanded, is certainly correct.
By contrast, in British English (similarly, sic), ''The data is ... (anything).'' is simply unacceptable, although, to be sure, one sees this construction from time to time. The British construction almost always places number before other considerations, cf. ''Manchester United are enjoying a three-nil advantage.'' The other way to say this is that, in literate British dialect, if the subject of a sentence can **even possibly** in context be plural, then the attendant verb will be plural. There are a few exceptions, ''Parliament'' occasionally being seen with a singular verb, for example.
Etymologically, ''physics'', ''mathematics'', and other similar English nouns share the same odd history: from an ancient Greek plural, to a Latin (sometimes) plural, through French (where G-d alone knows what may have occurred), in the apparent singluar, to medieval English -- which had grotequely ill-defined usage for number and even less for coherent spelling. At some point, and your guess is as good as mine as to when, the evolution of these words simply halted in its tracks. As a result, we now have a class of nouns whose members **look** as if they should be plural, but are from grammatical considerations singular.
I've noticed that British English considers company/organization names as plural: Ford are releasing a new model....
> Hmmm. Maybe. "Physics" sounds like it is an invented word - could be a form of contraction for "physical sciences" in which case it is plural. I don't have time this afternoon to look it up in my OED, but I will try to get to it.
"Physics" is from the Latin "physica", which is from the Greek "physika", which is in turn from "physikos", meaning "of nature" (I believe that'd be genitive plural), derived from a noun meaning "growth" or "nature". So at one point I guess it was in the plural form. I don't know how it went from the Latin form to the modern English form. Incidentally in OE, wouldn't "physics" have a "ck"?