# All Questions

318 views

### Sailing against the wind. Is this a fair model?

I was ruminating the explanations about how boats can sail against the wind (or "into the wind"), and wondered if one could devise a simple mechanical model without hydrodynamics involved. Imagine a ...
6k views

### Ice bath is always 3C, why?

I've always learned that a mixture of ice and water should reach equilibrium at approximately 0C. I've actually tried to create that a number of times in different contexts and always fail. First, ...
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### Help wanted achieving cryogenic temperatures [closed]

My son's science project involves liquifying air. I found the Linde process which is the way it was done first. We are trying and not getting very far so I am looking for advice. I have an air ...
452 views

### Time-ordered operator in Srednicki

On page 51 Srednicki states, "Note that the operators are in time order...we can insert $T$ without changing anything". This I agree with. But then on the next paragraph he states "The time order ...
120 views

### Will a copper plate spin near a motor?

I'm revising old physics papers and I'm unable to answer the following question. If a horizontal copper plate is suspended at the centre by a thread, over a motor whose axis is aligned vertically, ...
346 views

### According to relativity, can a statement be true and false in same time?

Say I write following statement on a paper: It's year 2014 at earth. Then I give it to my friend. My friend then starts to leave me and earth to outside with velocity of light. Einstein says the ...
359 views

### A change of units in Bethe formula

I'm reading through the following paper: Monte Carlo simulation of non relativistic electron scattering by W. Williamson and G. C. Duncan. In the following paragraph, I want to know how to arrive at ...
893 views

### Is it possible to project an image onto water? [closed]

Is there a way to create an image/projection in the water? Or form the water to project an image, little dot/pixel? Use some type of frequency to modulate the little dot in the fluid?
1k views

### Second order energies of a quartic pertubation of a harmonic oscillator

A homework exercise was to calculate the second order perturbation of a a quantum anharmonic oscillator with the potential $$V(x) = \frac{1}{2}x^2 + \lambda x^4$$ We set $\hbar = 1$, $m=1$, etc. ...
463 views

### Non-Conservative Behaviour of Static Electric Field

Static electric fields are supposed to be conservative in nature and therefore give $0J$ work if traversed over a loop. However in the following problem I got non zero work by a static electric field. ...
145 views

### Conduction– conservation of energy

So I know that conduction is transfer of thermal energy by direct contact via molecular collisions. For conduction, $Q/t$ is the rate of heat flow and is heat current ($I$). My textbook says that ...
292 views

### Quantum state with zero standard deviation of position operator

Is any quantum state $|\psi\rangle$ possible such that the standard deviation $\sqrt{\langle\psi|(\Delta\hat{x})^2|\psi\rangle}$ of the position operator $\hat{x}$ is zero? If not, why?
126 views

### picture and isomorphisms

I found a paper by A. Belopolsky : "Picture changing operators in supergeometry and superstring theory" where he says there exists a possible physical state in one picture that doesn't exist in ...
221 views

### Why does a small object stay in one place after being shot from a big gun?

This video shows what I mean. Basically they shoot a bullet from a huge gun at an iPhone. What I don't get is why does the phone move only so little after being shot? As far as I can tell it isn't ...
354 views

### Charge density in depletion layer for pn-junction

I just came across this Wikipedia article on pn-junctions: pn junction What I don't get is why the negative charge density is narrower/smaller than the positive one in Figure A. I'm guessing the ...
303 views

### Relativity and speed of light again - two opposite light sources [duplicate]

Two light sources emit light at the same moment but in opposite directions. At what speed the distance between two light fronts is increasing? c or c * 2? Note, that there is only one coordinate ...
100 views

### What do they mean with: photon scattering with $q^2=-Q^2\leq 0$

In a scattering problem, let q denote the four-momentum of the photon. Is $q^2=-Q^2\leq 0$ simply a statement of what metric one uses and simultaneously a definition of $Q^2$?
72 views

### Synchronizing time between two points

Suppose we have two points on earth, A and B, both with clock. Suppose we can send some information between points, with a random delay: $$min < delay < max$$ ($min$ theoretically exists ...
424 views

### Does Super Mario physics work in reality? [duplicate]

This illustration summarizes my question: Please assume no air resistance (unless that makes a large difference). Here's what we concluded, but I could use both confirmation and also help with the ...
135 views

### What happens to matter when in a thermodynamic equilibrium?

I am trying to gain a better understanding of thermodynamic equilibrium. Here's what (I think) I know: If a system is in Thermal, Radiative, Chemical, and Mechanical Equilibrium, then it is in ...
48k views

### How do I explain to a six year old why people on the other side of the Earth don't fall off? [closed]

Today a friend's six year old sister asked me the question "why don't people on the other side of the earth fall off?". I tried to explain that the Earth is a huge sphere and there's a special force ...
240 views

### Can a bullet leave a gun and tumble to the ground?

This question seems to have been asked a few times in different configurations, but none of them answer my variation. I've struggled to understand this for nearly 15 years and had conflicting answers ...
52 views

### What is the nature of Young's Double Slit Experiment with detectors?

If a detector is kept at the two slits the fringes disappear. But, when the detectors are removes do the fringes come up immediately without any significant time lag? Can there be a way to switch on ...
184 views

### Conclusions From a Junior School Science Experiment

If you stick a tissue to the bottom of a glass and immerse this glass fully (upside down) into a tumbler of water, then this tissue remains dry. Why is this so? / What conclusion would you draw from ...
4k views

### How the apparent weight varies due to the rotational motion of Earth?

I learned that as the earth rotates about its axis, the bodies on the earth also follow a circular path. In most books I read, they give the example of a person standing on a weight balance at the ...
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### Conductors and their charge?

Why does excess positive charge stay on the surface of a conductor? This is what I understood from: How does positive charge spread out in conductors? and other resources on the web: If there is a ...