# All Questions

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### What are the limits of validity for the magnetic field of a solenoid?

1) The field outside a solenoid is approximated to be zero, because of opposites sides "cancelling out". Does this approximation of the field being almost zero become worse as the diameter of the ...
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### Does charge of a metal charged by induction determine by which ends of the metal is grounded to?

Does charge of a metal charged by induction determine by which part of the metal is ground to? I draw a diagram to make it simple to understand: Right diagram: When ground is touched with the ...
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### How do inductors produce current?

This is how I understand batteries and capacitors. The terminals produce an electric field which causes the electrons to move in random directions. The surface charge builds up causing new electric ...
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### Why will two bubbles floating on water surface attract each other?

Two identical bubbles floating on water surface will form clumps, according to the "cheerio effect". But what's the detail about the force? It's necessary to calculate the shape of water surface, in ...
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### Is brane world scenario in contrast with inflation theory? [on hold]

Is brane world scenario in contrast in some way with inflation theory ?
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### Reissner-Nordström Black Holes

The Reissner-Nordström black holes are described by the metric, \begin{align} ds^2 = -\left(1-\frac{2M}{r}+\frac{Q^2}{r^2}\right)dt^2 + \frac{1}{1-\frac{2M}{r}+\frac{Q^2}{r^2}}+r^2d\Omega^2 ...
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### What's the Coulomb Branch and why is it important?

I'm studying the introduction of flavour degrees of freedom in the AdS/CFT correspondence and now I'm supposed to calculate the mass spectrum of mesons in the Coulomb branch. I have searched the ...
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### Position of two bodies as a function of time, special case

I'm looking for a closed equation like $x=f(t)$ (if there is) for a simplified case of the two bodies problem: Suppose that we have two point-like objects with the same mass, nothing more than their ...
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### Is Sound Considered a Subtopic of Physics? What are the SI Units of Sound?

Does physics cover sound? If so, why does sound not have units in the SI system, or how would we measure sounds and frequency? I guess it's debatable, but why isn't it standard practice in physics?
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### Efficiency increase via ducting a fan - why is this more in viscous media?

I am looking at mixers for liquids like water or slurries. This brochure claims the following: With the optional jet ring, it is possible to increase efficiency by up 15% in water - even higher in ...
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### What is Electromotive force (EMF)? How is it related to potential difference?

What is Electromotive force (EMF)? How is it related to potential difference? Is it the creation of potential difference in any conductor??Is it a process?Why is it called force?
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### Could moving land mass alter Earths gravity?

This is potentially a very stupid question but I'm going to ask it anyway. With all these huge buildings such as the Abu Dhabi Mosque, where an unbelievable amount of materials such as marble was ...
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### Mistake in Briefer History of Time by Stephen Hawking [on hold]

I was reading A Briefer History of Time by Stephen Hawking and Mlodinow. I found something silly. On page 36 at the bottom, it says the following : If, say, the sun suddenly disappeared, Maxwell's ...
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### Convolve a minimum phase wavelet with delta peak [migrated]

let's assume I have two time series: one with a delta peak at position $x$ and another time series with a minimum phase wavelet that starts at time $y$ with a maximum peak at position $z$. Now, when ...
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### How to find traces of the matrices of the Lorentz group for the Dirac spinors?

How to show that for proper Lorentz transformations the absolute value of the trace for Lorentz boosts is more than 4, and absolute value of trace for rotations is less than 4 for the Dirac ...
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### How many years of expansion occurred during inflation?

During inflation, expansion happens at a very rapid rate. How many years of expansion did it fast forward through? Meaning, if it weren't for inflation, how many years would it take for the ...
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### Basic concepts in quantum theory to start learning semiconductor physics [on hold]

What basic concepts in quantum theory one must known to start learning semiconductor physics?
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### Optical Simulation Tool [duplicate]

I am a student and trying to design an aperture from which a light will pass will project on a sensor. I tried to find some software simulation tool for this purpose where i can draw the aperture ...
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### Does evaporation decrease entropy?

I have a container of water in thermal equilibrium (there are no temperature fluctuations inside the container). Some molecules will evaporate out of the container of water thus decreasing its ...
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### group velocity VS probability current

Think about an electron been accelerated from rest in a static electricfield. If we treat the problem classically, in which the electron is just a point charge. The velocity of the electron would ...
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### What path will an object in a cockpit take?

Situation: A fly is in the cockpit of a fighter jet, and flying directly in front of the pilot. The pilot becomes annoyed and decides to get rid of the fly by executing a sudden, high speed turn. ...
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### In Feynman's “Random Walker” probability example, why is $D^2$ better for illustrating “wandering”?

Taken from Volume 1, Chapter 6, Section 3 of the Feynman Lectures on Physics. Feynman says that in describing random, equally-probable-backwards-or-forwards motion, that, We might therefore ask ...
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### Can a long pipe stop the flow of a liquid from a pump?

If a pump is discharging a fluid into a pipe, is it possible to add a long enough pipe such that the flow of the liquid will be stopped and none will come out of the open end of the pipe?
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### How a half-life works

Carbon-14 has a half-life of 5,730 years. That means that after 5,730 years, half of that sample decays. After another 5,730 years, a quarter of the original sample decays (and the cycle goes on and ...
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### Why does my body create interference with my clock radio while in bed?

I typically listen to NPR in the morning from a clock radio next to my bed. There are days when just moving my body, even my arm or leg, is enough to cause interference with the radio to dramatically ...
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### How does $(c^2 - v^2)$ factor to $c(1 - v^2/c^2)$? [on hold]

I just started studying the ideas leading up to Relativity and as soon as I came up to this equation in the Michelson-Morley Experiment I seemed to have had a brainfart. I'm assuming I'm forgetting ...
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### How does a microscopes optics expose defects in the users vision?

I've got cataracts in both eyes. My vision is correctable to 20/30, so the cataracts are essentially a non-issue in daily living. But when I use a microscope, which I do daily, (binocular, zoom ...
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### Integral of Theta Function with $e^{ix}$ [migrated]

I want to evaluate the integral: $$I=\int_{-\infty}^{\infty}dx_1 \int_{-\infty}^{\infty}dx_2 \ \Theta(x_1-x_2) \ e^{i(ax_1+bx_2)}$$ where $\Theta(x)$ is the Heaviside function. What I was doing now ...
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### How does the Higgs Particle Decay?

Background: It is my understanding that the Higgs Boson is a fluctuation of the Higgs field. It also is not very stable and decays into a plethora of other particles. If all other particles interact ...
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### Buoyancy of a positively charged object inside positively charged fluid

An object with a density of $x$ inside a liquid with a density greater than $x$ would float. If we assume that both of these are positively charged and the object is in the middle of the liquid: ...
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### Is time dilation an illusion? Variation on the twins paradox [duplicate]

Consider the twins paradox with a slight variation: Twins A and B are in separate space ships both capable of going at the speed of light instantly (i.e. without any acceleration). Both ships are ...
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### Can we fire a single femtosecond pulse of light without an associated train of additional pulses? What sort of equipment allows for this?

What sort of mode-locked laser systems allow for the production of single isolated pulse of light (as opposed to a train of more than one pulse), where the individual pulse duration is on order ...
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### How do I calculate stopping power?

Malcolm Gladwell made a claim in a recent talk that a sling with a stone going at 30m/s has the same stopping power as a .45 calibre handgun. How would I verify whether or not this claim is true - ...
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### How does Newton's law apply to a person throwing snow onto their snowbank at the side of their driveway?

We know Newton's three laws: A object at rest will remain at rest, and an object in motion will remain in motion unless a external force acts upon it. If an unbalanced force acts on a object, the ...
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### How long does it take for a black hole to form?

The well-known fable of an astronaut sending signals out to an external observer while falling toward an event horizon states that the time lapse between such signals becomes greater even if in the ...
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### Time dilation in special relativity?

I'm trying to understand the concepts of time dilation and spatial compression. I've been using the classic example of firing a photon of light inside a ship (spaceship, boxcar, etc.) moving at a ...
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### Did a racer on a “restless” course race at some particular average velocity? (2: Starting gate and finish line being rigid to each other)

Consider two participants, a starting gate ($A$) and a finish line ($B$), in a (sufficiently) flat region, both undergoing uniformly accelerated motion, such that $A$ finds constant ping duration ...
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### Relationship between diffused light and intensity

I was wondering if the relationship of the intensity of diffused light is a linear correlation to the diffusing material. Basically will the intensity of the diffused light change in a linear fashion ...
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### Feynman diagram for pair production in matter

I'm aware that electron pair-production from a single photon requires the presence of matter — say some large nucleus — able to absorb momentum, as in the process \begin{align} N \gamma \rightarrow N ...
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### What is the difference between a QCD “glue ball” and a Higgs Boson?

Although they have never been observed, theoretically gluons can exist outside of the nucleus of an atom in the form of a "glue ball". Since the predominant mechanism of Higgs creation at the LHC was ...
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### How much electricity can be generated from ambient sources?

I know that recent advances in technology are doing amazing things with very low amounts of electricity, with RFID being one of the most familiar examples, but I'm not very familiar with the ...