Where you see clearly the approach of Maimonides about the importance of Physics is in the story brought in the very last chapter of a volume in the Guide [I forget which]. Where the people around the palace of the King are the people that learn Talmud and the people in the palace are the physicists. And philosophers. I myself had never even noticed this until I saw it quoted in a book by David Hartman. But the way to go about doing this learning is like learning Gemara. Just like in the Litvak yeshivot you learn iyun in the morning and bekiut in the afternoon, so it is with physics and math. The learning bekiut fast is clear. You say the words and go on until the end of the book and then review. The iyun part is to take one specific formula and learn it saying the words forwards and backwards and the go on a few pages and go backwards a few pages until you understand the concept and you refuse to go on until you understand, or if you never understand then you just keep on doing it.