# All Questions

488 views

### How do they handle energy in magnets at LHC?

I'm guessing that when the LHC ramps up to 4000 GeV this means they are increasing the current in the superconducting magnets as RF fields accelerate the beams. Where does this current go when they ...
235 views

### Finding wave-fuctions of a Dirac particle for given 4-momentum and spin 4-vector

I've been reading through various materials on relativistic quantum mechanics, but I find the lack of simple examples disturbing. I'm acquainted with the general form the solutions to the Dirac ...
417 views

### Turbulence parameterization from gravity - fluid dynamics correspondence

I`m looking for a nice introductary reference that explains how the turbulence coefficient or any kind of turbulence parameterization (in view of applications to atmospheric turbulence for example) ...
549 views

### Wigner-Eckart theorem of SU(3)

I have just come across the Wigner-Eckart theorem and am not sure on how to apply it. How do I find the matrix elements of $\langle u|T_a|v\rangle$ in terms of tensor components and the Gell-Mann ...
2k views

### how to calculate minimum torque a DC motor needs to move the wheels

Im making a robot that must sense objects and pick them up. I need to order some motors, so i wanted to work out the torque needed just to push one wheel (as it may pivot, so one wheel will need to ...
430 views

### How do I find the tensor components of all weights of a representation of $SU(3)$, e.g. the six dimensional representation $(2,0)$?

How do I find the corresponding tensor component $v^{ij}$ of the six dimensional representation of $SU(3)$ with Dynkin label $(2,0)$?
2k views

### What does the Fermi Energy really signify in a Semiconductor?

In understanding the behavior of semiconductors, I'm coming across a description of the Fermi Energy here and at Wikipedia's page (Fermi Energy, Fermi Level). If I understand correctly, the Fermi ...
26k views

### Would you die if you put your hands on a powerline?

You know how birds perch on powerlines without getting electrocuted? What if by some chance that I find myself falling and I grab on one of them? Let's say both of my hands are on the same line, would ...
708 views

### Could a solar flare cause the Earth's magnetic poles to reverse?

With all the hype of the impending "2012 Mayan doomsday" I was thinking it might be interesting to see what principles of physics prevent the theories of doomsday from occurring. One overarching ...
242 views

### Why does it require such little energy to create the fastest thing in the universe?

I have noticed when I turn on the light switch in my house light comes from the bulb. How is this light created?(process occurring in the bulb) and why is this small amount of electricity enough to ...
256 views

### When work is performed solely by magnetism, is there an equivalent loss of energy from the magnetic field?

When two magnets are placed within appropriate proximity and released, the attractive force will perform work and bring them together. Work is performed overcoming friction. Can we measure a ...
2k views

### Why does the potential drop across a battery and resistor equal the emf of the battery?

In this diagram you can see the potential difference across the battery and resistor is the same as the pd created by the battery (the battery and resistor are representing a battery with internal ...
1k views

### Hit a bottle of beer on the top with another causes the first to spit all the gas, why?

So, on the other day me and my colleges were discussing the following phenomena: Pick two open bottles of beer. With the bottom of the first, hit the second on the bottleneck, in the following way: ...
353 views

### Area law for Entropy in Loop Quantum Gravity

In connection with the long saga of the (claimed) microscopic calculations of the Hawking-Bekenstein entropy in (3+1) Loop Quantum Gravity (LQG) and related approaches I have the following question: ...
793 views

### Can two particles remain entangled even if one is past the event horizon of a black hole?

Can two particles remain entangled even if one is past the event horizon of a black hole? If both particles are in the black hole? What changes occur when the particle(s) crosses(cross) the event ...
218 views

### Orbit through L4 and L5

I was reading the Wikipedia article on Lagrangian points and doing the requisite wiki walk through the various quasi-satellites of Earth when a question occurred to me: Could there be a stable or ...
204 views

### Resistance of superconducting wire in parrallel with standard wire

The formula for parrallel resistors is $\frac{1}{R_T} = \frac{1}{R_1} + \frac{1}{R_2}$ But how can you use this formula when one of the branches is a superconductor, eg: Where the red resistor ...
338 views

### What is the difference between quantum cryptography and quantum teleportation?

Generate two entangled photons, send one to a message sender and the other to the intended receiver. Both the sender and the receiver recover the same piece of quantum information from the photons, ...
147 views

### How should I be thinking about tides?

I am working on a project for physics that involves tides. This is my current mind set when thinking about tides: The earth applies a gravitational force on some mass ...
702 views

### This sentence makes no sense, electrostatics and electrons moving in a conductor - current

I highlighted the part where the confusion is. The sentence said that the potential difference is 0, yet it then immediately talks about how electrons can have motion. What are they trying to ...
1k views

### Can lightning be used to solve NP-complete problems?

I'm a MS/BS computer science guy who is wondering about why lightning can't (or can?) be used to solve NP complete problems efficiently, but I don't understand the physics behind lightning, so I'm ...
422 views

### Why is 'the period' marked as letter T?

I'm not a native English speaker and I was wondering, why 'the period' got the letter $T$. I've asked myself the question when I was thinking about stuff related to the frequency. I.e.: $f$ - ...
753 views

### Trajectories using Polar Coordinates

Once I asked my teacher how to find the trajectory of any particle that is acted upon any force.(Generally) He Told me that I couldn't do it as I did not know polar coordinate geometry as of then but ...
154 views

### Reference needed for Iron-based superconductors

Iron-based superconductor is a class of high-$T_c$ superconductors discovered in 2008. Are there any review papers about these superconductors yet? If not, which are the key papers in the field?
2k views

### Why is a black hole black?

In general relativity (ignoring Hawking radiation), why is a black hole black? Why nothing, not even light, can escape from inside a black hole? To make the question simpler, say, why is a ...
1k views

### Why do we need the quantity momentum?

Why do we need the quantity Momentum in physics when we have the quantities like Force and Energy? Isn't it possible to substitute the usage of Momentum with equivalent of Force and Energy?
3k views

### Turning an Airplane. What actually causes the circular motion in a banked (roll) turn?

Basically I'm wondering if this is correct. Which essentially says that you need a torque to get the nose of the craft to turn and that this is provided by the rear tail surfaces. After trying to ...
523 views

### Uncertainty principle in infinite potential well

Consider infinite potential well i.e. Hilbert space $L^2 \bigl([0,1]\bigr)$. Next we consider subset D_\theta = \left\{ \psi \in L^2 \bigl([0,1]\bigr) | \; \psi \; \text{is absolutely continuos and ...
124 views

### Massless particle as a result of annihilation of “heavy” particles

How can a massless particle such a photon be the result of electron-positron annihilation? What about the law of conservation of energy? Is a valid explanation that the pair's energy transforms itself ...
420 views

### Upper limit on the earthquake magnitude

From the Gutenberg-Richter law we know that the frequency of an earthquake is a power law, so virtually any magnitude is possible on earthquake event. But the earth has a finite size so there must be ...
116 views

### Qualitative argument to determine energy of defects

In a book of "LES HOUCHES - Critical Phenomena, Random systems, Gauge theories" the author Frolich says that: 2D In two dimensions, the mean energy of an isolated point defect in a square area of ...
747 views

### How calculate the angle to launch an object at the maximum distance?

Suppose that you want to launch an object that travels the longest distance, given the starting speed (or the force applied). You have to determine the angle that al you to reach the longest distance, ...
487 views

### Are right handed neutrinos actually antineutrinos and vice versa?

Is it experimentally ruled out that right-handed neutrinos are actually antineutrinos, and left-handed antineutrinos are neutrinos ?
261 views

### Cloud chamber video showing large particles - What are they?

Watching a video of a cloud chamber on wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cloud_chamber.ogg), I cannot help noticing the large collisions that take place at 00:12 and 00:24. What are ...
92 views

### Proving that the weak hypercharge gauge field is not A

Under the electroweak gauge group $SU(2)_LU(1)_Y$ one identifies the 4 gauge fields $W^+, W^-, W^0, B$. After symmetry breaking $W^0$ and $B$ mix to give the observed fields $Z^0$ and $A$. Is there an ...
482 views

### Dielectric in a parallel plate capacitor

Uniform charge: each atom has charge $q$. Magnitude of dipole moment is $q s$, where $s$ is the distance the nucleus is shifted. According to my notes, the charge on the surface of a dielectric in ...
805 views

### Relationship between acceleration, velocity and position

I'm learning some applications for equation of motion. But I'm failing to relate velocity, acceleration and position. If $v=\frac{dr}{dt}$ and $a=\frac{dv}{dt}$, why $a$ is $\frac{d^2r}{dt^2}$ ...
90 views

### Is the environment around an asteroid harsher than in interplanetary space?

In the wikipedia article about NEAR Shoemaker it is mentioned that the craft stopped operating under these conditions: At 7 p.m. EST on February 28, 2001 the last data signals were received from ...
2k views

### Is space infinitely divisible?

As a child I remember hearing the popular paradox presented by Zeno proposing that Achilles could never catch a tortoise in a race since he would have to traverse the infinite space between himself ...
1k views

### Greatest volumetric heat capacity

Is there any substance with bigger volumetric heat capacity than water? According to this table water has the biggest known VHC. But I can't believe that in the 21. century we have no special material ...
319 views

### Control system with equation C = A*x + B*dx/dt

This question came up in a computer science / robotics exam and I still don't know the solution for it. I figured out that it's classical mechanics related, so I thought this might be the best place ...
1k views

### Schematic design of the apparatus (photoelectric effect)

I think I understand the basic idea of photoelectric effect but there are two things in the schematic diagram of the apparatus for the investigation of the photoelectric effect which I do not ...
186 views

### quantization of this hamiltonian?

let be the Hamiltonian $H=f(xp)$ if we consider canonical quantization so $f( -ix \frac{d}{dx}-\frac{i}{2})\phi(x)= E_{n} \phi(x)$ here 'f' is a real valued function so i believe that $f(xp)$ ...
1k views

### Relation of energy to amplitude & frequency

Not really a homework question per se, but i am just curious about this: Energy of a wave is given by the planck relation, which should be proportional to its frequency. However in electrical ...
322 views

### Gravity and Planck scale

What is the connection between Planck's constant and gravity? Why is the Planck scale the natural scale for quantum gravity? I would have though the scale would be related to G, not h.
803 views

### Interpretation of the Random Schrödinger Equation

I should preface this by admitting that my physics background is rather weak so I beg you to keep that in mind in your responses. I work in mathematics (specifically probability theory) and a paper ...
217 views

### Central charge at the fixed point of the ${\cal N}=2$ Landau-Ginzburg theory in $1+1$ dimensions

Let me first believe that the ${\cal N}=2$ Landau-Ginzburg theory does in the IR flow to a non-trivial fixed point and that if the potential is of the form $\Phi ^k$ then the central charge of the CFT ...
207 views

### What kind of phases nanoparticles have (gas-solid-liquid)?

If a phase transition requires a number of particles that is in the TD-limit, can nanoparticles (~10 atoms) have phase transitions? What kind of phases and transitions nanoparticles have?
I first recall the Dirac's quantization rule, derived under the hypothesis that there would exit somewhere a magnetic charge: $\frac{gq}{4\pi} = \frac{n\hbar}{2}$ with $n$ natural. I am wondering ...