# All Questions

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### A better conceptual model for cooper pairs in a superconductor

The conceptual model I have been introduced to for cooper pairs in a bulk superconductor is what I would call the "wake" model, where one electron deforms the positively charged lattice, changing the ...
128 views

### Question about derivation of tensor in Di Francesco's CFT

This is a question for anyone who is familiar with Di Francesco's book on Conformal Field theory. In particular, on P.108 when he is deriving the general form of the 2-point Schwinger function in two ...
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### What is the relationship between $V(t)$ and $V(x,y,z)$

I was recently asked this by a friend. He told me that coming from a physics background, he does not understand $V(t)$ and he believes it is purely theoretical construct made up by circuit ...
281 views

### Does the sun “drag the solar system through space”?

In this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jHsq36_NTU#t=55 at 0:55, it is claimed that "the sun is [...] dragging the planets in its wake". Is this true? My understanding is that the sun and ...
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### AC circuit analysis: Why does current have the same frequency as the voltage?

The above example we have a 50hz AC voltage source. Why is that when we solve for I, I must have frequency of 50 Hz? Is there any phyiscal (non-mathematical) reason to explain this? Thank you
1k views

### Is there a classical analog to quantum mechanical tunneling?

In comments to a Phys.SE question, it has been written: 'Tunneling' is perfectly real, even in classical physics. [...] For sufficiently large temperatures this can put the system above a hump in ...
42k views

### Surviving under water in air bubble

An incredible news story today is about a man who survived for two days at the bottom of the sea (~30 m deep) in a capsized boat, in an air bubble that formed in a corner of the boat. He was ...
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### Doppler effect and acceleration's impact

Can anyone explain why they say Doppler effect does not depend on acceleration? Would having acceleration not affect the frequency? If the source emits the first circular wave, moving at 50 m/s ...
442 views

### A few questions on passive vs active Lorentz transformations

1.) How do we physically interpret an active Lorentz transformation? The passive transformation seems simple enough: you view a fixed object from the perspective of a new observer. When we actively ...
169 views

### How to recover units?

Theorists frequently use convenient units like $\hbar=1$ or $m=2$ or whatever is useful to simplify the notation in the problem. And after all the calculations are done the units are recovered based ...
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### Data/signal from a black hole to observe a singularity

I wonder if a situation is possible where, we measure some signal/property concerning a black hole. Supposing the measurement we make with some telescope, gets us the Fourier transform coefficients of ...
333 views

### Finding resultant and direction of resultant

In this question- A motorboat is racing towards north at 25km/h and the water current in that region is 10km/hr in the direction of 60 degree east of south. Find the resultant velocity of the ...
962 views

### When blowing air through a tube, why does it act differently if I press the tube against my mouth, or hold it an inch away?

So I have a tube of wrapping paper. It's at least a couple of feet long and maybe two inches wide. If I press one end of the tube firmly against my mouth and blow, I barely feel warm air come out ...
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### Electric charge of light? [duplicate]

Light (or any radiation as a matter of fact) is an electromagnetic wave so why doesn't it have a electric charge associated with it? As far as I know only static or flowing electric chargers can ...
264 views

### Tensor Product of a Bra and a Ket

What does one get if the take the tensor product of a bra and a ket, for instance, $\langle\uparrow \rvert \otimes \lvert \downarrow\rangle$? What I mean it, what is this object? What does it act on? ...
4k views

### How do I find the tension in additional strings in this problem? [closed]

A mass of 5.00 kg hangs attached to three strings as shown in the figure (see image below). Find the tension in each string. Hint: Consider the equilibrium of the point where the strings join. ...
101 views

### Sound pressure and velocity pressure concepts vs loudness

Here is my understanding and question: Atmospheric pressure is around 101325 Pa. Our ear drum is exposed to this pressure from both sides so total pressure is zero. But when we hear sound, ear drum ...
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### Does the magnitude of an electrical field change with frequency?

I am trying to model the frequency response of a force (dielectrophoresis) that is based on gradient of an electric field. One of the components is the CM factor which has a frequency component, but ...
28 views

### Quantum mechanics for macroscopic charges?

OK first off tell me if my understanding of the following is correct: In a Hydrogen atom, one would expect that the opposite charges (electron and nucleus) to attract each other, according to ...
542 views

### Quantum mechanics threshold

First of all I beg your forgiveness as I am not a physicist and the question I am going to ask may sound silly. I am aware that beyond a certain threshold in the hierarchy of building blocks of ...
2k views

### What exactly do we see on the famous neutrino image of the sun?

An answer to the question If we could build a neutrino telescope, what would we see? contains a link to a neutrino image of the sun by the Super-Kamiokande neutrino detector. There it says that ...
290 views

### Does the electron have spin in its own reference frame?

In our atomic physics class, we saw that the spin-orbit coupling term arises from the scalar product of the magnetic moment of the electron (proportional to its spin), and the magnetic field created ...
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### In real laser applications, how big is the complex parameter (i.e. <n>) of the corresponding coherent state of the field?

In quantum optics, the output from a laser is modelled using a coherent state; what are some orders-of-magnitude for the complex parameter (usually denoted $\alpha$) of the coherent state ...
106 views

### Faster spinning moon

Let's say we somehow speed up the moon's rotation. (I'm thinking about a big asteroid smashing into it, but I'm open to better ideas.) Here are some questions: How fast could we get the moon to spin ...
29k views

### Why are volume and pressure inversely proportional to each other?

It makes sense, that if you have a balloon and press it down with your hands, the volume will decrease and the pressure will increase. This confirms Boyle's Law, $pV=k=nRT$. But what if the ...
1k views

### How to calculate the buoyant force on a balloon at different altitudes [duplicate]

For a project into balloon simulation I'd like to know how the force on a balloon changes with altitude: I know that the Buoyant force on a balloon is: $F = (\rho_{air} - \rho_{helium})gV$ Using ...
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### DO the condensed photon particles-waves-longitudinal-waves exist? [closed]

This is kind of hard to explain, because weird as it sounds, i have experienced a phenomenon that i would like to see if it exists and if i can explain it mathematically. The longitudinal waves of ...
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### How do you actually cool the atoms to create the Bose-Einstein Condensate?

What is the actual way you cool atoms to a low enough temperature that you can observe their quantum behavior at a macroscopic level, like in the Bose-Einstein Condensate? ...
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### Change in momentum [duplicate]

A cube has a side length of 20 cm. An atom in the gas moves around the cube as shown. It continually bounces off the four lateral walls of the cube. The atom has a mass of 6.6×10−27 kg. Because of the ...