All Questions

5k views

Torque vs Moment

I was wondering, why in Newtonian physics torque is called "torque" while in static mechanics they call it "moment"? I prefer by far the term "torque", for not only it sounds strong, but also ...
787 views

Why did Schrodinger never budge on the meaning of $|\Psi|^2$

Schrodinger believed that the phisical interpretation of the wavefunction $\Psi$ was the vibration amplitude and $|\Psi|^2$ was the electric charge density. While no-one disagrees with his ...
187 views

A wonky gravitational potential and its critical points

I have tough problem I am not sure how to solve: For this question, we are confined to a plane. Consider a gravitational field that is proportional to $\frac{1}{r^3}$ instead of $\frac{1}{r^2}$, and ...
469 views

Is eternal inflation and the multiverse compatible with causal patch complementarity?

The argument for eternal inflation is we have some patch of metastable vacuum with positive cosmological constant, and so it expands exponentially a la de Sitter. Most of the patch decays to something ...
1k views

Why are infinitesimal rotations commutative, whereas finite rotations are not?

Infinitesimal rotations commute and every finite rotation is the composition of infinitesimal rotations which should logically mean they also commute; but they don't. Why?
256 views

The shape of the earth$\ldots$

....is an oblate spheroid because centrifugal force stretches the tropical regions to a point farther from the center than they would be if the planet did not rotate. So we all learned in childhood, ...
49 views

Does Mercury have a balmy spot?

From Wikipedia: Although the daylight temperature at the surface of Mercury is generally extremely high, observations strongly suggest that ice exists on Mercury. Does that mean there could be a ...
322 views

908 views

Critics of Mannheim's Conformal Gravity Theory?

I'm looking for more articles/reactions/critiques/support for Philip Mannheim's recent conformal gravity theory. See here: http://arxiv.org/abs/1101.2186v1 Any ideas on where to start?
224 views

what is the probability distribution for the angle of an approximate laserbeam

I'm trying to simulate the light distribution characteristics from a Gaussian laser beam, but having difficulty with the angular distribution. I need to generate a large number of points on an x/y ...
198 views

What does this infinitesimal Eulerian change describe?

This is a question I originally posted in math.se which received an answer that was far too mathematically sophisticated for what I wanted; given that basic multivariable calculus was used through out ...