# All Questions

264 views

### Rotation of Taylor expansion of a scalar

I have a scalar magnetic field in a volume expressed by the formula $$B(x,y)=B_0 + \frac{\partial B}{\partial x}(x-x_0) + \frac{\partial B}{\partial y}(y-y_0)$$ which approximates the ...
266 views

### Relativity of Simultaniety

In the first figure, A and B are two equidistant points from the observer O in S. In the second figure (reference frame S') the corresponding points are A'and B' such that A'O'=O'B', where O' is the ...
139 views

### paradoxical results in different applications of the 2nd law of thermodynamics

Assume two closed systems adjacent to each other together forming one adiabatic system. Both systems are assumed to have their volumes fixed and can therefore communicate with each other through heat ...
41 views

### Future of a universe with scalar field

Assume that $\phi=\phi_0\gg M_{Pl}$, what can you say about the future of a universe in a model with $V(\phi)=\frac{1}{2}m^2\phi^2+\epsilon \phi$, where $|\epsilon|\ll m^2M_{Pl}^2$, is a small ...
2k views

### Does the weight of fluid in a conical container act entirely on the base?

Scenario description Lets assume both containers have a capacity of 300 litres. One is a vertical tube as shown in pic 1 Other one is more or less a V shaped containers as shown in pic 2 Both are ...
480 views

### Could the phenomenon of vortex bursting be exploited to reduce wake turbulence?

One of the classic stories in the annals of aerospace engineering is the development (and subsequent redesign) of the F-18 and its Leading Edge Extensions (LEX) due to fatigue problems, problems that ...
332 views

### What was the density of the universe when it was only the size of our solar system?

What was the density of the universe when it was only the size of our solar system? Did it approach neutron star density? Is it physically correct to even ask such a question?
344 views

### Repulsion and attraction of electric currents

Now, I understand that when a an electron travels, it creates a magnetic field. If you put two wires with current traveling in the same direction they repel, and current traveling in opposite ...
113 views

### On Thermodynamics of Spontaneity of the Reduction-Oxidation Chemical Reactions

According to the first and second law for a closed system containing different chemicals we have \begin{align} &\delta Q - \delta W = dU = T dS - p dV +\sum_i \mu_i d N_i\\ ...
306 views

### What kind of physical quantity is angular displacement?

Angular Displacement is neither a vector nor a scalar. What type of physical quantity it is? Are there any other examples of that physical quantity?
258 views

### Conservation of energy and momentum via the continuity equation in asymmetric time and space translation

I am confused about energy and momentum conservation, time and space translation symmetry, and the continuity equation. Suppose we have a mass $m$ in inertial space far from any gravitational ...
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### Can we measure rates in real time?

I know what it means to say that my position is "X" at a particular moment in time. I can easily take a picture of my motion and observe my exact location at the instant the picture was taken. That is ...
3k views

### Trying to combine red, green and blue to produce white

I tried to mimic the mechanism of typical screens to produce white color out of red, green and blue. What I did is displayed the attached image on the screen, and moved far away as to let the ...
306 views

### Why does the Walecka model not include pions?

The Walecka or $\sigma$/$\omega$-model is an effective theory describing nucleon-nucleon interaction by an exchange of $\sigma$/$\omega$-mesons. Why does it not include interactions by pions?
2k views

### Is Coulomb's law accurate for moving charges?

Can we use Coulomb's law to calculate the force between two charges which are not at rest? If not, what formula should be used to calculate the force? I searched it, but I couldn't find a clear ...
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### In an optical system with a single convex lens, where should the image area be placed in order to take pictures at infinite focus?

I'm trying to learn how camera lenses work, and have gotten stuck. Say that we have an optical system consisting of a single lens with focal length f, and we want to take pictures of objects which are ...
192 views

### How hot is aurora?

Has anyone done research on how hot aurora is? I mean if it is plasma it should be hot and since it is emitting mostly green light due to nitrogen (~78%) in the air, could it then be considered that ...
28k views

### Why doesn't matter pass through other matter if atoms are 99.999% empty space?

The ghostly passage of one body through another is obviously out of the question if the continuum assumption were valid, but we know that at the micro, nano, pico levels (and beyond) this is not even ...
2k views

### how does a lizard walk on vertical walls? [duplicate]

One day I was observing a lizard walking on walls as easily as we walk on horizontal surfaces. I got curious to know the physics behind this but I couldn't get to any useful conclusion. I tried to ...
236 views

### Gauge pressure clarification

Is gauge pressure always zero-referenced against ambient air pressure? Or is it referenced against the sum of all pressures acting on a fluid, which usually just happens to be ambient air pressure? ...
1k views

### When they say that the universe cooled after the big bang, where did the heat go?

Layman here, Stumbling through some physics stack posts and started reading the Wikipedia for the chronology of the big bang. In it, it states The very earliest universe was so hot, or energetic, ...
508 views

### Why can rolled up capacitors be modelled as flat parallel plates?

If you have two parallel plate of opposite charge with a dielectric in between, then Capacitance, $C = \frac{A \epsilon_{0}}{d} K$, where $K$ is the dielectric constant. This is used to calculate ...
1k views

### Does the Higgs boson give mass to ALL other particles? [duplicate]

The Higgs Field gave mass to other particles via spontaneous symmetry breaking; does this mean it gives mass to all particles that have mass - such as neutrinos, quarks or weak bosons and strong ...
305 views

### What does it mean to expand a Hamiltonian using perturbation theory?

On UC Davis chemwiki website, the Hamiltonian for quadrupolar coupling in NMR is analyzed. (The details of this aren't important.) It is said in the analysis that: The expansion of the ...
90 views

### Justification of discrete spectrum for V(x) unbounded at $\pm \infty$ in Pauling and Wilson

In Pauling and Wilson, Introduction to Quantum Mechanics, they offer the following intuitive reason for the discrete spectrum of a potential which is unbounded at $\pm \infty$: This is ...
37 views

### Is the expansion accelerating or decelerating? [duplicate]

I have already asked this on Astronomy.SE but I couldn't understand the answer there. According to Hubble's Law, the farther a galaxy is, the farther it is moving away. But do we take into account ...
372 views

### A question about the Thomson experiment

Recently, I was studying about Thomson's experiment with cathode rays. My textbook shows it like this. It says: When only electric field is applied, the electrons deviate from their path and ...
295 views

### Why isn't resistance proportional to distance squared

Here we have a wire. At both ends there is an equal and opposite field caused by a chemical reaction. So, if we decrease or increase the distance between the two points, the strength of the field ...
315 views

### Cooper instability

I have a question about the mechanism of Cooper instability. I know the naive picture with two interacting electrons and noninteracting fermi sea wchich leads to the bound state formation. However, if ...
375 views

### BBC radiation: What is it?

I'm reading articles about blazars, and in a discussion about models concerning Blazar SEDs (Spectral Energy Densities) there are mentions of different processes: Sychrotron scattering, inverse ...
2k views

### Would computers accelerated to high speeds compute “faster” from our point of view?

I woke up to this thought yesterday: Lets say Computers A and B have exactly the same specifications and at time T both are set to process an algorith that would normally take exactly 1 year and ...
172 views

### Thermal expansion coefficient times temperature: under which condition is it unity?

In Landau's Fluid Mechanics p. 8 (2nd edition) he writes for the thermal expansion coefficient $\beta = (1/V) (\partial V/\partial T)_P$: For a column of gas in equilibrium which can be taken as a ...
6k views

### Can an object reverse its direction of acceleration even though it continues to move in the same direction?

Can anyone please explain me on this matter along with day to day examples?
209 views

### Is fission reaction considered natural or artificial? [closed]

As I learned, nuclear fission doesn't occur without the control of a human made nuclear reactor, by hitting a neutron to a fissile isotope. Thus, the fission reaction is considedred as a part of ...
1k views

### Dropping a ball in a fast moving train

If I drop a ball in a train moving at a constant speed, will it land on the spot I aimed it at or a little away as the train has moved while it was in air? If it lands away, will the observer not know ...
254 views

### Copper mean free path dependence on temperature

I'm doing simulations of copper, where the temperature can reach up to ~1300 K. Some calculations depend on the mean free path (MFP) of copper. The only value I've found for it is 39nm and it's ...
152 views

### I am learning Quantum Mechanics and I have some questions about some basic concept [closed]

What does a "STATE" exactly mean in quantum mechanics? What is the equivalence of "STATE" in classical mechanics? If we have a wave function $\Psi$ , its absolute square $|\Psi|^2$ is the ...
202 views

### Does electromagnetic field collapse the wave function of charged particles?

In an electron double slit experiment, let's put two charged plates behind the slits in an attempt to move the pattern up and down on the the screen. What will happen? Will it just shift the ...
399 views

### Most ideal Black-body! [duplicate]

According to the definition of Black-body, it absorbs all of the wavelength irradiates on it. A recent material absorbs 96.4% visible light rays. Therefore , can we say that it is the most closest ...
54 views

### Regarding luminosity monitor of particle collider

I am sorry if my question is completely wrong or foolish I would feel glad to be corrected On the wiki page for Bhabha Scattering, it is mentioned that it is used as luminosity monitor in many ...
213 views

### Electrical force between two objects

I tried to solve the following problem: There are 2 objects . The object m1 with charge q and the object m2 with charge q.(same charge).The object m2 is connected with a rope to the ceiling. at the ...
248 views

### Explanation of Dirac's proof of arbitrary ket being expressible with eigenkets of observable

In P.A.M. Dirac's The Principles of Quantum Mechanics, Chapter 10 (Observables), pp. 40, at the end of the chapter there is a proof that I don't understand at all. Here is a pdf link to the book ...
178 views

### Antipodes are mostly ocean - so what happens after digging that hole through earth?

Digging a hole through earth is a common thought experiment, often used to explain effects of gravity. But what would happen if someone finally dug the hole? Sure, he took care to stabilize and ...
3k views

### Day/night cycle in Greenland

I have heard that in Greenland there is day for 6 months and night for 6 months. Is this true? If so, how does it happen?
185 views

### The measurement of electricity

I'm a student trying to understand electricity. As I learned from school, electricity is the flow of electrons, but I'm confused about the measurement of electricity. As I learned, voltage is the ...
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### Understanding velocity gradients in fluids

So I'm having trouble understanding velocity gradients conceptually, I have little physics training passed physics 101 (I'm a biologist), but I'm currently working in an endothelium research lab with ...
1k views

### How can molecule of a few angstroms absorb visible light of a few hundred nanometers?

I guess visible light is visible, because it has the right wavelength to be absorbed (or not) and emitted (or not) by many different molecules. Now visible light has a wavelength in the order of a few ...
109 views

### Maybe photon energy is constant as the Universe expands?

This is a question following on from my previous post Time-like Killing vector in FRW metric? For simplicity I take the spatially flat FRW metric in cartesian co-ordinates given by: ds^2 = -dt^2 + ...
Consider noncanonical operators $\hat{x}_1,\hat{x}_2,\hat{p}_1,\hat{p}_2$ satisying the following condition in the $q_1,q_2$ - basis ($\psi=\langle q_1,q_2|\Psi\rangle$)(similar to wave mechanics): ...