# All Questions

2k views

### Tesla to Newtons [closed]

Is it possible to convert Tesla to Newtons of force? Or magnetization force H:(A/m) to newtons?
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### Why can't the units of work and torque be interchanged? [duplicate]

When I'm studying about work and torque, I found that their unit are the same. But, why don't we use Joule (unit of work) instead of Newton-meter (unit of torque)? Since $\mathrm{1\ Joule = 1\ Nm}$, ...
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### Can Kirchhoff laws be applied to any circuit?

Kirchhoff's loop/current rule is just law of conservation of energy and Kirchhoff's junction rule is just law of conservation of charge.So, I think that these can be applied to any circuits unlike ...
1k views

### Person Pushing a Block vs. People Pushing off Each Other - Newton's Third Law

I have read so many forums on this and I still do not understand and it's affecting my ability to move forward with learning physics right now. Imagine the following scenario: a person on a ...
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### EM attenuation in free space at different frequencies

Can anyone explain intuitively why electromagnetic radiation (according to the basic path loss equation in communications) experiences more attenuation at higher frequencies? The equation states ...
695 views

### When is energy discrete/quantized for a potential well?

Specifically, my question is: Should one expect energy quantization for a particle in the following potential well? More generally, how can one tell whether or not energy should be ...
2k views

### Burning VS Melting: What is the relation in the atomic/molecular structure?

This has never been asked before on this site, so I thought I would ask this to help future searchers, passerbys, or others understand this better. What are the key differences between burning ...
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### Is ocean color affected by Rayleigh Scattering?

We know that sky color is due primarily to Rayleigh scattering. Is Rayleigh scattering the dominant effect for ocean color too?
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### Derivation of Moment of Inertia and centre of mass?

In the equation above for the MI for a rod, why are we taking the limits from -l/2 to l/2? And why doesn't the integral doesn't include the centre of mass?
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### Principle of relativity - a second, equivalent form, using invariants

Most people state the principle of relativity like this: "The rules of physics must take the same form in all inertial frames." Question: is this an equivalent way of saying the same thing: ...
245 views

### Revisiting the microscopic concept of Touching with some more questions

This question is regarding the amazing answer given by Terry Bollinger at this Phys.SE post. I think this answer is very helpful but i do have some standing questions. He says Once the bonding ...
509 views

### what could generate a high-pitched whine in electronics where the frequency depends on the current?

So I was operating a Laue machine recently which generates x-rays and fires them at a sample, and I noticed that there was a high-pitched whine coming from the instrument (nothing abnormal, just ...
2k views

### Boundary condition for a floating electrostatic potential

I have a (probably) simple question regarding boundary conditions. In electrostatic simulations, the relevant Maxwell equation is $\nabla \cdot \mathbf{D}=\rho$ where $\mathbf{E}=-\nabla V$, and ...
152 views

### Betti multiplets in Kaluza Klein compactifications

It is well known that if the compactification manifold of a supergravity theory has non-zero Betti numbers, this may lead to the so called Betti multiplets in the spectrum of the low dimensional ...
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### How bright was the AGN eruption at the center of the Milky Way ~2 Ma ago?

The black hole at the center of the Milky Way is believed to have erupted as an active galactic nucleus (AGN) approximately 2 million years ago, at which time it would have been visible to early ...
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### Is isotropy a fundamental/invariant feature of our universe, or is it merely a convenient, albeit arbitrary, feature of some reference frames?

This is related to a previous post. Assuming that the Cosmological Principle is correct, does this imply that the universe possess an empircially privileged reference frame? What I am trying to ...
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### why using a EM spectrum produces a narrower fringes

I'm trying to figure out a physical reason of why a broader pulse turns out to give a narrower fringe, although I know mathematically the fringe is just the fourier transform of the pulse on the ...
168 views

### QCD mass gap finite temperature

QCD has a mass gap. Does heating up QCD to a finite temperature change this fact, or is it a property which is independent of temperature?
128 views

### Why is the collision term negative in the equation of motion for a fluid of electrons in a plasma?

The fluid equation of motion for electrons in a cold plasma is $$m_en_e\frac{d\textbf{v}}{dt} = -en_e(\textbf{E}+\textbf{v}\times \textbf{B}) - m_en_e\nu\textbf{v}$$ where ...
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### Magnetic core, and a DC solenoid

A DC solenoid creates a magnetic field B. A highly permeability magnetic core is added to solenoid to increase B. Now, there is change in flux, due to the increase in magnetic field. What would be ...
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### Does sound cancel itself out?

If there are two 10 x 2 x 1 foot rectangles in space and they are lined up so if they hit each other there will be no spots that are not hit in the front of the rectangle. Then they are pushed forward ...
280 views

### Confused about elasticity and collisions

I was solving the following problem and the explanation to it confused me. There are two objects with mass $m$ and $M$, respectively. The object with mass $m$ has a velocity of $\sqrt{2gl}$ and ...
387 views

### Ricci scalar in Scalar Field in Curved Space-time

I was recently looking at a Lagrangian of a scalar field in curved space-time at http://www.unc.edu/~mgood/research/Carroll_QFT_CS.pdf on page 8. I am not a physicist, and I am currently studying ...
2k views

### How would a laser gun actually work?

So, let's assume that the "laser gun / phaser / beam weapon" from all sorts of Sci Fi were an actual thing. You know - a weapon that uses a laser to kill somebody. I'm trying to imagine the physics ...
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### Assuming that the Cosmological Principle is correct, does this imply that the universe possess an empirically privileged reference frame?

OK...before everyone blasts this with references to the relativistic invariance of the physical laws, time dilation, etc let me add some context. Also, I am an amateur with an interest in physics, so ...
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### Origin of cusps in simulated dark matter halos

I keep reading that cusps are one of the most "robust" predictions of N-body simulations of dark matter halos. But papers I've found on the topic make it sound like these simulations are complicated ...
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### Recover activity from photo at Fukushima

This photo was published at stern magazine online. I wonder which information about the physical quantities could be reconstructed or computed given this photograph, the exposure time, and the ...
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### How can there be a current and an electric field in an idealized wire with no voltage drop?

In an ideal circuit, How can there be a current b/w points a & b, when there is no potential difference and thus no electric field between a & b? If there is no current, then where does ...
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### Is there a differential equation that can represent a circuit with an arbitrary voltage source connected acrorss an antenna?

An RLC circuit with a voltage source can be characterized by the differential equation: $$LC\;\ddot{I}\left(t\right) + RC\; \dot{I}\left(t\right) + I\left(t\right)-C \;\dot{V}\left(t\right) = 0$$ ...
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### Discrete approximation of charge density

Given the electric potential $\Phi(r)$ and the Poisson's equation: $$\nabla^2 \Phi(r) = - 4\pi \rho(r)$$ Consider the 2-dimensional case and let's say that I want to discretize this using a square ...
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### How long does it take for a metal to reach equilibrium?

I wonder if there is a measure of how long a piece of metal takes to reach electrostatic equilibrium. Does it depend on piece's size? Does it depend on the amount of imbalance? Lots of websites and ...
I was recently reading Atkins' Physical Chemistry, the topic of rotational energies of molecules. It states the degeneracies of spherical top, symmetric and linear molecules as being $(2J+1)^2$, ...