# All Questions

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### Animating an Acceleration Vector - Acceleration of object on a crested path in gravitational field

So I was reading in Chapter 3 of my textbook, Sears & Zemanksky's University Physics with Modern Physics by Young and Freedman, 13th Edition, and the discussion took us to a definition of the ...
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### How do we know what happens to stars during their life cycle?

It is common knowledge than Sun-sized stars will eventually become red giants, and later they will get gradually smaller again until they cool down into a brown dwarf, and that bigger stars can ...
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### Meaning of $R=0$, $R_{ab}=0$. $R_{abcd}=0$.

First let me state some definition The Einstein tensor is given by \begin{align} G_{\mu\nu} = R_{\mu\nu} - \frac{1}{2} g_{\mu\nu} R \end{align} and note that \begin{align} G^{\mu}_{\phantom{\mu} ...
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### Relativity and Current in Wire

If an observer is stationary relative to a current-carrying wire in which electrons are moving, why does the observer measure the density of moving electrons to be the same as the density of electrons ...
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### Coriolis deflection:- is it 4 times if the object is thrown up, compared to a drop?

A particle is thrown up vertically with initial speed, reaches a maximum height and falls back to ground. Show that the Coriolis deflection when it again reaches the ground is opposite in ...
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### What will be final velocity of three charges $q$, $q$, $2q$? [on hold]

What will be final velocity of three charges q, q and 2q kept along an eqilateral triangle of side r at infinite distance. All three masses are equal. I tried to conserve Total Energy ...
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### Would a pendulum swing indefinitely in a frictionless vacuum?

I am attempting to settle a friendly bet. Would a pendulum swing indefinitely in a hypothetical vacuum (i.e. no air resistance) having a hypothetical frictionless bearing (i.e. no energy lost due to ...
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### Angular momentum with respect to the centre of mass

I have been told [Warning: I leave this because it's what I asked and allows to understand the dialogues in the comments, but Azad, whom I thank, has pointed that the formula does not hold in general ...
336 views

### Wave packet in curved spacetime

It is known that the classical equation of motion for a scalar field wave packet on a curved spacetime background gives the geodesic trajectory (the e.o.m. is $(\nabla_\mu \nabla^\mu + m^2) \Phi=0$). ...
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### Solve unsteady state Bernoulli equation for flow in a pipe

I am an engineer studying an unsteady-state flow through a pipe. The Pipeline has been cleanly cut into two halves, without deforming the cylindrical form of the pipe, exposing the contents to ...
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### How do you find a particular representation for Grassmann numbers?

This question is more general in the sense that I want to know how one finds a particular (say matrix) representation for any object. For the case of Grassmann numbers we have from Wikipedia the ...
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### Can an insulator have magnetic poles?

Is it possible to make an insulator have two poles like a magnet? If yes, how to make it?
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### Second law of thermodynamics (in terms of entropy)

Is the second law of thermodynamics (in terms of entropy) for closed systems or isolated systems? I thought it must be valid for isolated systems, such as the Universe. But the book Fundamentals of ...
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### event horizon vs apparent horizon ramifications

If the event horizon doesn’t exist in the 2-dimension or 3-dimension time-space - and it doesn’t exist if it can’t be measured or observed - then an apparent horizon would be necessary to reconstruct ...
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### Integrating the geodesic equation to obtain Newtonian energy of test particle

I am studying General Relativity, and have come across a question that I am finding rather intractable: In Newtonian Theory, the energy equation for a test particle in orbit around a point mass ...
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### Can we determine the surface temperature of stars other than the sun by using the black body radiation theory?

It is well known that the surface temperature of the sun can be determined by fitting the solar spectrum to the black body radiation spectrum. Is this scheme feasible for other stars? Possibly the ...
431 views

### Repelling force of magnets

What happens if I take two strong magnets and press their like-poles towards each other - does the repelling force created by them equals the force I'm exerting on them or does the repulsion force ...
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### How did neodymium magnets get their name?

Like in the question. Why neodymium magnets (Nd2Fe14B) are called "neodymium magnets"? Why not boron magnets? Or iron magnets?
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### Why is the mechanical advantage of a wedge = length of slope/ width?

Mechanical advantage is defined as Force Output/Force Input For a symmetrical wedge with the length of the slopes being equal and the width being the distance between the end points, the articles ...
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### Calculating stopping distance of a car on a slope

I'm having trouble setting up a homework problem properly. We are given the following: A given car can brake to a stop from a speed of 60.0 mi/h in a distance of 123 ft on a level roadway. What ...
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### Can a particle have an imaginary mass?

Now, I'm not very involved in the physical sciences, beyond some high-school classes - though I did listen to some college lectures for physics. I was reading "Do Tachyons Exist?" by John Baez, which ...
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### Why does conservation of étendue matter when showing one cannot focus light to arbitrary temperatures?

The latest XKCD What-If post discusses how one cannot start a fire by focusing the light from the moon. The answer is no, for well-established reasons, but the explanation isn't watertight. Maybe ...
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### Why does a dynamical gauge field accompany fractionalisation?

I'm trying to understand fractionalisation, of which spin-charge separation is an example. I've read that this is accomplished by introducing a Lagrange multiplier field, which becomes a dynamical ...
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### What evidence is there of the existence of quarks?

What is the experimental evidence that suggests the existence of quarks? How were they discovered? I'm going to assume a particle collider is involved, as it tends to be the case with most subatomic ...
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### Force field for calcium ions, potassium ions and water in molecular dynamics

I want to adapt my existing MD simulation so that it can handle these three species. For the interactions of the ions I thought that I would use the coulomb potential, but I don't know what sort of ...
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### What do I need to calculate UV intensity?

I have a mineralogical UV lamp that I want to use for some research, I only know it's wavelengths. To calculate the µJ/cm3, what else is needed? Distance, time, wattage? Is the value I'm looking for, ...
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### Degenerate perturbation theory

I don't understand the part about turning off the perturbation. What is meant by or what is he referring to when he says "upper" and "lower" states. Why must the "upper" state reduce to a ...
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### Scattering in Black Holes

Let's take your favorite Black Hole and consider the scattering problem for a scalar field around it. Suppose that the Klein-Gordon equation can be separated in the radial and the angular part. Which ...