# All Questions

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### Why does a propeller suck in air from the front?

A rotating but fixed propeller sucks in air from the front. What is the cause for this acceleration of air particles? Since propeller blades act like rotating wings, my best guess is that the blades ...
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### Conservation of energy in quantum mechanics

In Griffiths' book Introduction to quantum mechanics (second edition, page 37) it states: The time-independent Schrödinger equation says $$\hat{H} \psi_{n} = E_{n}\psi_{n}$$ so \langle H ...
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### Gravitational force between rod and mass $m$

Why do we integrate along the whole length while finding the gravitational force between a object of mass ($m$) and a rod of length $L$ and mass $M\,?$ Can't we simply use $F=\frac{GmM}{r^2} \, ?$
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### Why do Cooper pairs not bump into other particles?

I sort of get how they get formed and how it works but why do they not bump into other particles? and do the spins have to do with this?
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### Can a piezoelectric material only vibrate at one frequency?

Given a material X with piezoelectric properties which is used in a ultrasonic transducer, what determines the working frequency of said transducer? If hypothetically such a transducer is specified ...
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### Is there a limit to the size of black hole?

I have read answer by @John Rennie in regards to the size and density of black hole. In the last sentence he states that super supermassive black hole ...
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### Do electrons in an atom always have the same 'direction'?

Perhaps speaking of direction of an electron isn't quite correct. But does QM indicates a kind of way whether all electrons are going e.g. 'clockwise' or not? Of course QM just gives a probability ...
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### Energy method to solving equations of motion? Why does this method work and what is it called?

Given the stated system in the photo we are suppose to prove simple harmonic motion when given an initial displacement $x$ I first considered the total energy of the system which we will call $H$ ...
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### Horizontal and vertical acceleration of a ball on a slope?

I understand that you resolve the components of the balls weight parallel and perpendicular to the slope in order to calculate the force due to gravity that actually acts down the slope. The ...
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### Equivalent spring constant of setup

A mass $M$ is suspended using two springs having spring constant $k_{1}$ & $k_{2}$ with distance from mass as $a$ & $b$ respectively. Find equivalent spring constant of system. So I ...
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### If black holes warp space-time infinitely, does that mean space-time goes on infinitely in all directions?

My thoughts are if a black hole warps space-time infinitely then does that mean space-time goes on in all directions infinitely? Maybe (probably) my understanding of space-time is not great, if ...
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### Can the permittivity tensor always be diagonalized? Why is it always an ellipsoid?

For an anisotropic medium, permittivity is a symmetric tensor, with elements as $\epsilon_{ij}$ a) How can one be sure that it is diagonalizable, if some elements, say $\epsilon_{xy}$ and ...
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### What is conformal symmetry physically?

I'm reading a paper by t'Hooft http://arxiv.org/abs/1410.6675. There is an argument in the paper that I could not understand: "Now that system, described by Maxwell’s equations, does have conformal ...
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### What is supposition of equilibrium? How do Rayleigh, Jean know the electromagnetic wave in equilibrium behave?

In a cavity of dimension L, the wave must give zero amplitude at the wall, means wave equation has zero amplitude. Why? Answer from hyperphysics "since a non-zero value would dissipate energy and ...
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### When we write that $F = -\nabla V$ , what would happen if we ommit the (-) minus sign

I have had this question for a long time. In classical mechanics, if we choose $\mathbf F = -\mathbf \nabla \, V,$ with the minus sign, we can proof the work - kinetic energy theorem. What are the ...
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### Do we know why there is a speed limit in our universe?

This question is about why we have a universal speed limit (the speed of light in vacuum). Is there a more fundamental law that tells us why this is? I'm not asking why the speed limit is equal to ...
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### Why did James Chadwick use berryllium to discover neutrons?

In Rutherford's alpha particle scattering experiment he used gold foil because it's malleable and can be drawn into very thin sheet. Why did James Chadwick use Berryllium while discovering neutrons ...
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### Speed of Sound using Resonance

The aim of my experiment was to determine the speed of sound using the theory behind resonance; that, when a vertical pipe open at both ends is partially submerged in water, and a tuning fork ...
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### Onsager's Regression Hypothesis, Explained and Demonstrated

Onsager's 1931 regression hypothesis asserts that “…the average regression of fluctuations will obey the same laws as the corresponding macroscopic irreversible process". (Here is the links to ...
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### What's the difference between binding energy and separation energy?

My understanding of the two was as follows: the binding energy of a nucleus is, classically speaking, the energy needed to put together/take apart that nucleus completely (i.e. a measure of the strong ...
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### How can a bowling ball curve in both directions?

There is a popular video on facebook that I just don't understand. A man spins a bowling ball very fast then slightly taps it down the lane. Somehow it does half of a figure eight, curving around two ...
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### Compton scattering vs. photoelectric effect

Say a photon hits some atom. What determines whether there will be a photoelectric effect (photon is absorbed, electron is released) or whether there will be a Compton scattering (the photon is ...
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### Frequency of Sound Waves

Is the frequency of the echo (resulted from the reflected sound wave) equal to the frequency of the original sound wave?
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### Weightlessness in Satellites

The following is written in my textbook as the reason for weightlessness felt in satellites: The gravitational pull is counterbalanced by the centripetal force. This introduces two problems: ...
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### Liquid jet in the absence of gravity [on hold]

On earth, we have liquid jets which are falling and accelerating under influence of gravity ( this cause their radius to decrease ) My question is about liquids in the absence of gravity. Can we make ...
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### What does electric field of unpolarized light look like when measured?

When we talk about fermions in mixed state, we say that their state can't be described by a wavefunction and just compute all the probabilities using density matrix. That's OK because the ...
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### Changing the Density of a liquid while its surface tension is constant

I'm working on Plateau-Rayleigh waves and I want to investigate the effect of density of the liquid on the wavelength of these waves How can I change the density of the liquid while its surface ...
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### Finding the value of E at a point in a 3D field with 2 separate point charges [on hold]

Having some trouble with this question: A charge 30 nC is situated at the point (x, y, z) = (0, 2, 0) and a charge of –30 nC at the point (0, -2, 0) m. Find E at the points: (a) A = (4, 2, 4) m
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### What uniquely defines a CFT?

So, I am quite new to CFT (and a as descriptive answer as possible would be appreciated). I want to know what uniquely defines a CFT in 2D and otherwise. Firstly in 2D, What defines a CFT? So I ...
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### How do I find the co-ordinates and speed of this particle on the x-y plane? [on hold]

I got this question from an old physics exam paper. I'm trying to use the kinematics equations to solve this question but the x and y co-ordinates keep confusing me. Here's the question: A particle ...
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### When you make materials smaller is there a trend in the manner light is absorbed or reflected?

For instance if you take gold is shines like yellow, but if you make it smaller I've heared that it absorbes more the smaller frequencies. At a size of 100nm a piece of gold will absorb fe more blue ...
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### What is a Light Efficient System?

When reading this paper, I encountered this sentence on the sixth page: When used in conjunction with wide-field microscopy, iterative restoration methods are light efficient. This is most ...
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### Are magnetic hysteresis losses relevant to alternating currents flowing in a wire?

Say we have an AC in a magnetically lossy material, like iron. Because of iron's relatively high permeability, skin effect will be more pronounced than it is in say, copper, so this iron wire isn't so ...