# All Questions

91 views

### Tidal forces in free fall

Would a body free falling in a gravitational field which has a gradient large enough that it would affect the free falling body 'feel' the effect of the tidal forces on it. I'm curious because would ...
32 views

### Is there a material with non-monotone density dependence on pressure?

Is there a material with such non-linear effects (including chemical reactions, phase transitions etc ...) so that there would be range where pressure increase would yield density decrease? What ...
47 views

### Lepto-genesis and electroweak theory

Is there any term in standard electroweak theory that breaks CP-symmetry and thus explains lepto-genesis?
3k views

### Calculate flow rate of air through a pressurized hole

I was wondering about this: If there is a pressurized container, like a tank of compressed air at some pressure that is greater than the ambient air pressure, and this tank of air has a hole in it, ...
86 views

### Given a slanted pipe

Question: I have a pipeline that is tilted. I know the length of the pipeline, and the pressure (90psi) that is felt at the very bottom. I'm trying to find out how much liquid has leaked out if the ...
50 views

### What is a good textbook to learn how to ray trace light through an optics system in 3d? [duplicate]

I can do 2d problems easily, but I need to learn more to do a 3D ray trace. Can you guys point me towards a textbook? I'm having trouble dealing with the normal and incident rays in 3D
148 views

### Why can't classical information be transmitted through quantum entanglement by measuring time between change events? [duplicate]

If the effect of measurement in quantum entanglement occurs instantaneously why can't it be used to transmit classical information faster than light? I'm based my question off this seemingly well ...
89 views

### CPT theorem and annihilation of matter and antimatter after the big bang

Is the hypothesis that antimatter is moving backwards in time compatible with the hypothesis of annihilation of matter and antimatter after the big bang? It is said that the big bang should have ...
443 views

### Wouldn't the presence of dark matter slow the expansion of the universe?

If there is a huge element of dark matter in the universe, wouldn't this extra gravity prevent the accelerated expansion of the universe?
73 views

### Will the Universe eventually stop expanding

Sorry if this is a naive question, not being even a part qualified physicist in any way shape or form. I've read that the universe is expanding and the rate of expansion is increasing. The assumption ...
746 views

### Is speed an intensive property?

I remember being taught in elementary physics that while it makes sense to add volumes, masses, or heat, it makes no sense to add temperatures. As I wanted to use that to illustate some other issue, ...
99 views

### Why do we observe opposite motion of trees (nearer) and trees (distant) when seen from a moving frame? [duplicate]

If you are in a moving train or in a bus, what you observe is that the trees which are nearer to you move opposite to the direction of your motion. But the trees which are very far away from you, ...
650 views

### A common definition of a scalar

Some dictionaries define a scalar as follows: A quantity, such as mass, length, or speed, that is completely specified by its magnitude and has no direction. -- The Free Dictionary However, it ...
231 views

### Calculating the magnetic field due to a rotating ring using Biot–Savart law

I wish to calculate the magnetic field due to a charged ring rotating about an axis perpendicular to the plane of the ring and passing through a point on its circumference $(P)$. I arrive at something ...
66 views

### Logarithmic discretization in Anderson´s model

Is there some motivation for the construction of Ladder operator that compound the recursive halmitonian of the Anderson model for numerical renormalization contained is this paper?
66 views

### General relativity from helicity 2 massless field theory by using Deser's arguments

Recently I have discovered the method of constructing of GR from massless field with helicity 2 theory. It is considered here, in an article "Self-Interaction and Gauge Invariance" written by Deser S. ...
7k views

Now this might be a silly question but it's actually bugging me, this one might be easier to understand if you have kids that watch (or used to watch) Peppa Pig. In one of the episodes, about shadows, ...
75 views

### Effective masses for different direction

Assume we have an indirect semiconductor where the effective mass becomes anisotropic in different directions. Usually, one talks about a mass in parallel and perpendicular direction referring to ...
141 views

### Speed of light versus pull of gravity - Is $c$ really the limit? [duplicate]

The understanding I have is that the speed of light is considered to be the highest attainable speed in physics. Of course there are theories of tachyons but since those haven't been proven we'll ...
91 views

### How does electric field intensity look like along a wire which has one end connected to an AC source and the other one is left free?

How does the electric field intensity look like along a wire with constant conductivity which has one end connected to an AC source and the other one is left free? I mean is the electric field the ...
329 views

### Does large acceleration have to cause damage to the human body?

My whole life, I've heard that large accelerations cause damage to humans (e.g. g-forces in space movies). However, after reading about general relativity, it seems to me that a strong force which ...
155 views

### Making new sense of the three-body problem in the light of Maryam Mirzakhani math contributions

I am unfamiliar with moduli spaces and ergodic theory which appear to be essential in Maryam Mirzakhani's math contributions which won her the Fields Medal. However, I am well conversant in essential ...
67 views

### Is Gravity related to velocity? [closed]

Is the missing link of what creates gravity, the velocity that an object rotates or moves through space ? Can a small object with little mass which rotates or moves in enormous speed create a strong ...
65 views

### Conserved charge from conserved current associated with translational invariance

(c.f Di Francesco, 'Conformal Field Theory' P.45) Di Francesco calls the conserved charge arising from the conserved current associated with a translation invariant theory the 'four momentum'. While ...
52 views

### How is force felt at relativistic speeds?

Hypothetically, should a force feel the same as its measured force at relativistic speeds? Obviously a human body would not survive the force of a rotation at say, 0.6 the speed of light, but it’s ...
94 views

### If MOND theory doesn't explain gravitational lensing, couldn't well placed black holes explain it?

When I first heard about star velocity as a function of its distance from the center of the galaxy and the difference between prediction and observation I immediately thought "there must be a ...
59 views

### What would happen if charged plates are placed horizontally?

My idea is placing charged conducting plates in such a way that they won't see each others' surfaces unlikely to the typical design of parallel plates. If they are placed like this, would be the force ...
24 views

### Magnetic field associated with edge currents in IQHE?

According to some theory, currents in IQHE are due to the edge states. The edge current on the upper edge flows from left to right, that on the lower edge flows from right to left. Did anyone detect ...
83 views

### Can we introduce the mass of a quantum field as an interaction?

At a free massless Lagrangian $$L_0 = \frac 1 2 ( \partial \psi)^2 ,$$ add an interaction term $$L_I = \frac 1 2 m^2 \psi^2$$ where m is small ...
66 views

### Glashow-Weinberg-Salam mass terms

At the end of spontaneous symmetry breaking I get these mass terms: $$W_{\mu}^{\pm}=\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}\bigl(W_{\mu}^{1} \mp i W_{\mu}^{2} \bigr )$$ \mathcal{L}_{mass}=\frac{1}{2} g^2 \frac{v^2}{4} ...
81 views

### What exactly are crystal planes and how do they reflect x-rays?

What exactly are crystal planes and how do they reflect x-rays? Are crystal planes real physical planes or just an abstract concept? What are these planes made of? If they are an abstraction, what ...
135 views

### Reduced mass and harmonic mean

In two-body problems, a reduced mass has the form: $\frac{m_1 m_2}{m_1+m_2}$, which by appearance, is half of the harmonic mean of $m_1$ and $m_2$: ...
154 views

### How does a structureless particle decay?

As we know that particles having structure (quarks) decays to lighter products. We can show the decay of them by quark level Feynman diagram. But what about muon decays to electron, neutrino (muon ...
197 views

### Questions about the degree of freedom in General Relatity

I'm confused about the number of degrees of freedom in General Relatity. There are two ways to count it. However, they are contradictory. For simplicity, we consider vacuum solution. First, ...
132 views

### Why aren't all large stars black holes?

Like all stars, large ones are stable as long as there is a sufficient amount of hydrogen (or helium) to fuse. This fusion process is what prevents them from collapsing in on themselves. However, ...
80 views

### Why do the electron in Bohr's principal quantum levels or ground state do not emit radiation? [duplicate]

Bohr said that only certain orbits of definite energy are allowed inside the atom. He said that the electrons in their ground state do not emit radiation and that they will emit radiation when they ...
134 views

### How does a photon “know” that it's left one charge and that it's going to another one?

How does it know the same charge it left will be the same charge it will return to? My understanding is photons are neutral and have no charge. i.e. Like charges repel, unlike attract. All charged ...
2k views

### What interesting physics problems can't be solved because mathematics is not developed enough? [closed]

I'm curious as to what sorts of physical problems to which we don't have an answer, because we haven't developed the right mathematics yet (or advanced-enough mathematics). Related to this question ...
65 views

### Black Hole mass increase from infalling body

When a body falls into a black hole, the black hole's mass increases. Does this mass increase depend only on the rest mass of the infalling object, or is it affected by the velocity of the infalling ...
5k views

### When a star becomes a black hole, does its gravitational field strength become stronger?

I've seen in a documentary that when a star collapses and becomes a black hole, it starts to eat the planets around. But it has the same mass, so how does its gravitational field strength increase?
122 views

### How is it that a tachyon is faster than $c$? [closed]

I remember reading that a tachyon is faster than light, but am still confused as to how and if they could exist in our universe?
299 views

### What does really attracts a water stream to a charged object?

I saw this video by Varitasium and I was not 100% sure about the third phenomena, a statically charged object attracting a stream of water, especially because he explicitly mentioned that it is not ...
106 views

### Dirac fermion in curved space

What is the connection between Dirac equation in curved space-time and effective Hamiltonian for Dirac fermion in curved space (topological insulators)? I am trying to find this connection but I am ...
140 views

### Higgs Mechanism

In Higgs mechanism, we take the combination of LH $SU(2)$ doublet and RH singlet along with Higgs doublet so that the overall weak hypercharge and weak isospin is zero to be $SU(2) \times U(1)$ ...
66 views

### Does the mass distribution matter in (Schwarzschild) black holes?

Is it possible that from the same initial mass different black hole radius will be created due to different mass distribution during black hole creation? If mass is concentrated more on the outside ...
89 views

### Why is the range for a particle thrown at 90 degree same as that of a particle thrown at 0 degree?

There is a derivation given in my book which concludes to the fact that the range is same for two angles of projection, provided they are complementary. I fail to understand this fact. For example, ...
131 views

### What does a MEMS gyro measure during off-axis rotations?

I've been working with MEMS gyroscopes in hobbyist projects for years—but it's recently come to my attention that I don't have any principled understanding of what rotation rate measurements ...
114 views

### Particles Associated With Gravitational Waves

I've been reading about linearized GR and the study of gravitational waves, and an odd thought popped into my head. According to wave-particle duality (admittedly, usually used in quantum mechanics!), ...