# All Questions

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### Is the braket notation of the Dirac delta function symmetric?

I have a book saying, $\int \delta(x-x')\psi(x)dx = \psi(x')$ where $\psi(x) = \langle x\lvert\psi\rangle$, so our definition of delta function would be $\langle x'\lvert x\rangle = \delta(x-x')$. ...
279 views

### Relativistic Mass and Dark Matter

In a question here Ron Maimon comments that "relativistic mass makes gravity, not rest mass." If so, does that mean that the faster that stars orbit the galaxy the larger the relativistic mass of the ...
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### How does a treadmill incline mechanism work? [duplicate]

Possible Duplicate: What's the difference between running up a hill and running up an inclined treadmill? I want to know how a system can give so many small steps of inclination and so ...
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### Conservation of energy with Huygens-Fresnel principle

I am currently experimenting with Huygens-Fresnel principle. I am trying to simulate the propagation of a beam, emerging from an aperture slot of width w. I assume the slot to be long and therefore ...
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### How to learn celestial mechanics?

I'm a PhD student in math and am really excited about celestial mechanics. I was wondering if anyone could give me a roadmap for learning this subject. The amount of information about it on the ...
598 views

### Tensor product decomposition of SU(2)

I have a rather trivial question. I am looking for the decomposition of $1/2\otimes 1/2\otimes 1/2$. It should give, $0,1/2$ and $3/2$. I thought one must get as the overall dimension of this space 8, ...
363 views

### Alpha Decay or Fission

In a quiz contest, I came across the following question: What is the term used to describe the splitting of a heavy nucleus into two lighter nuclei? Two options provided were: a) Alpha Decay b) ...
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### When does not Newton's 3rd law apply?

Is Newton's 3rd law valid in non-inertial frames? If so, then are there other cases for which Newton's 3rd law is not applicable?
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### Hidden particles in higher derivative field theories

Given a higher derivative classical/quantum field theory with say one scalar field, particularly the Lee-Wick standard model. It has been shown that such a field theory encompasses two kinds of ...
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### Are there cosmic rays in a nuclear reaction?

If the range of energies of cosmic rays is not so far away respect to gamma's, why those are not found commonly in a nuclear reaction?
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### Why do rainbows have distinct colors?

When I searched on the Internet for the reason of formation of rainbows, I got many explanations like this one & this. All the explanations consider only one spherical water droplet (like this ...
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### Does quantum fingerprinting really argue for the exponential size of wavefunctions?

Does quantum fingerprinting really argue for the exponential size of wavefunctions? Quantum fingerprinting is the idea that an exponentially long classical string can be encoded in a linear number of ...
291 views

### When can a classical field theory be quantized?

Given a classical field theory can it be always quantized? Put in another way, Does there necessarily need to exist a particle excitation given a generic classical field theory? By generic I mean all ...
137 views

### Does the inability to postselect to a given branch argue against MWI?

It has been argued the exponential size of the wavefunction can be interpreted as many parallel worlds, and this explains how quantum computers can factor large integers and compute discrete ...
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### Which speed can an electric scooter reach on a given slope?

Electric scooters are always "given" as "working with slopes up to xx%", but what does it mean? Given motor torque and power, scooter+driver weight and wheels diameter, how can I determine at which ...
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### Is it really true that slow-roll inflation is incompatible with string theory?

In this blog post, Motl claimed that slow-roll inflation is incompatible with string theory. Is that really true, and why do people think so?
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### What sort of thin film experiments can be done in zero gravity and in the presence of cosmic radiation?

I recently found out about sending stuff into space and using the unique zero gravity and cosmic radiation riddled environment to investigate stuff like crystal growth. Since thin film science is a ...
238 views

### How can one prove that the number of images formed by the reflecting surfaces of two plane mirrors at right angles to each other is 3?

How can one prove that the number of images formed by two plane mirrors at right angles to each other is 3? Is there a mathematical proof for the same ?
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### Scattering on delta function potential

Suppose a particle has energy $E>V(+/-\infty)=0$, then the solutions to the Schrodinger equation outside of the potential will be $\psi(x)=Ae^{i k x}+Be^{-i k x}$. How can one show or explain that ...
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### Where can I find hamiltonians + lagrangians?

Where would you say I can start learning about Hamiltonians, Lagrangians ... Jacobians? and the like? I was trying to read Ibach and Luth - Solid State Physics, and suddenly (suddenly a Hamiltonian ...
4k views

### Does the 'mAh' rating of a battery have something to do with its power?

I'm curious about the 'mAh' of a battery: how can this impact the power of the battery? I've done some research on the internet, and most of the articles I found explain about the 'amount of charge ...
113 views

### Is it right to cut a slot on some material before bending?

I made a suggestion to my boss to cut a thin, shallow slot on a metal sheet on the side we wanna make 90°, so that the machine could bend it. However, the outcome was "The metal broke". My boss was ...
2k views

### Difference between deltaV and specific impulse

When reading any literature regarding space propulsion, I keep getting about these terms deltaV and ISP or specific impulse. I know specific impulse is supposed to be the velocity the propellant mass ...
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### How to measure g using a metre stick and a ball

Can I measure the value of g using only a metre stick and a ball? I am not supposed to use a stopwatch and that has been the problem. NOTE: I do not know if a solution exists or not.
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### What is a Pseudoscalar particle?

Can someone explain to me what is a pseudoscalar particle? And how do experiments figure out that what they're dealing with is a scalar or pseudoscalar?
364 views

### Defining entanglement in subspaces of tensor product

I have asked the question in math.stackexchange, but perhaps it should be more relevant here. Hence I am re-posting it with necessary reediting. Let $\mathcal{H}=\mathbb{C}^n$ be a Hilbert space. A ...
456 views

### Is there a simple approximation to calculate the index of refraction of water?

A very rough approximation from first principles, from the elementary charge and hbar, would suffice. But is there such an approximation at all? (Alternatively, if water is too difficult: is there ...
237 views

### Ward Takahashi identities from Z invariance

I'm trying to get Ward-Takahashi identities using the approach used in Ryder's book (pages 263-266). I like that he starts from demanding gauge invariance of Z in a explicit way and them explores the ...
4k views

### What happens when a photon hits a mirror?

When a photon of light hits a mirror does the exact same photon of light bounce back or is it absorbed then one with the same properties emitted? If the same one is bounced back does it's velocity ...
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### LIGO Gravitational Waves [closed]

Has LIGO detected any gravity waves yet, or any hints of them? Is it just that LIGO is not sensitive enough or are we now entering disconfirmation territory? If we never detect gravity waves with any ...