# All Questions

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### Magnetic Fields created by Current-Carrying Wires

The drawing shows two perpendicular, long, straight wires, both of which lie in the plane of the paper. The current in each of the wires is I = 5.6 A. What is the force and torque acting on each wire ...
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### Is it possible to record the 'blue air" effect when a core goes critical?

I've been studying about radiation, and I saw something called the Demon Core. Apparently, it was a core that was under experimentation by the government in Los Alamos to see the exact point at which ...
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### Should a 1D Guassian wave oscillate?

I wrote a few lines that numerically solve Maxwell's equations. The result is a moving wave that looks like a single pulse. This looks strange to me because I expect waves to move in oscillator ...
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### Atomic physics through classical resonance?

I have a rather general question regarding the theory of Quantum Mechanics. To preface this question, consider a violin string. When a violinist exposes the string to a bow, this is exposing the ...
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### Why doesn't a marble rolling on a table ever reflect back at the edge?

In light of the fact that when encountering a potential step there is a non-zero probability of a particle reflecting back, I was just wondering why it is that a marble doesn't "reflect" back from the ...
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### What properties are entangled in quantum entanglement?

When two particles are entangled, one can measure the properties of one of the particles and instantaneously know the properties of the other. This is because the two particles possess the same ...
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### Algebraic/Axiomatic QFT vs Topological QFT

Can anybody please tell me a good source investigating the relation between Algebraic/Axiomatic Quantum Field Theory (AQFT) and Topological Quantum Field Theory (TQFT)? Or is there none?
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### A tensor summation question

With the definition of the tensor: $$J_{ij} = I_{ij} - \tfrac{1}{3}\delta_{ij}I^{k}_{k}, \qquad i,j,k\in\{1,2,3\},$$ I have seen the quantity: ...
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### When does $T^{ij} = T_{ij}$?

Suppose we have some tensor with components $T^{ij}$. Then suppose that we also have $T_{ij}$. When would $T^{ij}T_{ij} = (T^{ij})^2 = (T_{ij})^2$?
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### What happens to this potential energy?

Let's say I turn on a Van de Graaff which creates a large positive charge. Now let's say I have an object with a positive charge in my hand and I start walking toward the Van de Graaff from $x$ meters ...
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### Am I properly identifying the resistor terminal voltage?

The frequency applied to a circuit of voltage 120 V with a real coil and a resistor has a value of 50 Hz. The resistance of the resistor is 10 $\Omega$. The voltage at the resistor terminals ...
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### Tensor perturbation inflation

During inflation the metric is de-Sitter so $dt^2-d\underline{X}^2$. I know that the eqn.motion governing GW's from inflation (tensor perturbations) is $$2H\dot{h}+\ddot{h}-\nabla^{2}_{i}h~=~0,$$ ...
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### What fraction of peak horsepower do typical 4 door passenger vehicles use?

I was surprised when I looked at the power rating of the engine used on a Humvee. It's only ~190 horsepower, which is exceeded by many sedan engines. So an obvious question is why doesn't my Camry SE ...
230 views

### Is Hamilton-Jacobi equation valid for only conserved systems?

From derivation of Hamilton-Jacobi (HJ) equation one can see that it is only applicable for conserved systems, but from some books and Wikipedia one reads the HJ equation as ...
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### Sign Conventions for Dirac equation

Is it possible to have the Dirac sign convention, (-,+,+,+) and at the same time use the metric $$dt^2-dx^2-dy^2-dz^2$$ i.e have opposing Dirac and metric tensor conventions?
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### How do I find the force from drop shock using material properties?

I am dropping a cylindrical cast iron bar with a know elastic modulus and poisson's ratio, $E_{1}$ and $v_{1}$, onto a flat beam of elastic modulus, $E_{2}$ and $v_{2}$ so there is tangential drop ...
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### Space Quantization of Quantum Angular Momentum

I am trying to understand what my book is trying to convey. Quantum angular momentum is $L_z = m_l \hbar$ "Choosing arbitrarily a z axis and using an appropriate experimental technique, we measure ...
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### What are hidden variables exactly?

What are hidden variables in quantum mechanics? I am aware there are many types but what exactly do they mean or even "do" exactly? Do they mean that the quantum indeterminacy becomes hidden but ...
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The action of free scalar field theory is as follows: $$S=\int d^4 x \frac{\dot{\phi}^2}{2}-\frac{\phi(m^2-\nabla^2)\phi}{2}.$$ I have been thinking to redefine field as ...
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### How is the equation of motion on an ellipse derived?

I would like to show that a particle orbiting another will follow the trajectory $$r = \frac{a(1-e^2)}{1 + e \cos(\theta)}.$$ I would like to do this with minimal ...
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### Mechanical Waves

In the book Young and Freedman 13th edition, the wave equation is $y(x, t) = A\,\text{cos}(kx-wt)$ The problem is, I find it hard to console with the fact that $y(x, t) = A\,\text{sin}(wt-kx)$. ...
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### What algorithms are used for track reconstruction in cloud chambers?

In particular I'm interested in any algorithms that can separate multiple tracks from one another reliably.
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### How do we know space is expanding when we are part of space? [duplicate]

From what I understand space itself is expanding, and the Big Bang attempts to describe this expansion at the very early stages of the universe. This is usually described in a visual way as 2 dots on ...
7k views

### Thermal expansion coefficient of water

I am working through the methods section of the following paper: Spatial-temporal variability in surface layer deepening and lateral advection in an embayment of Lake Victoria, East Africa In the ...
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### What causes the mass of Higgs boson itself? [duplicate]

Current theories stipulate that particles mass is due to : Quantum chromodynamics (mutual attraction of quarks, i.e. gluon's kinetic energy, circa 98%) and Higgs field (quarks rest mass, circa 2%) ...
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### What is the limit to how many satellites can orbit the earth?

I would like to know how many satellites are physically able to be in place, at the same time, orbiting the earth. Lets ignore which Nations need or use the most satellites (area in space above them) ...
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### Seeing a mirage through mirror?

Okay, I am not really good in physics (rather terrible), but nonetheless. So, I was just wondering if you can see a mirage, is there something special in our eyes that we can see it or what? I mean, ...
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### How much energy would it take to blow up the earth?

There is a common statement running around that we as a species has enough nuclear weapons to blow up the earth several times over. What I want to know is: by how many orders of magnitude is that a ...
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### Does anybody know of any good sources that explain (generically) how we form Lagrangians/Actions/Superpotentials for different field content?

I regularly find that I'll understand where the field content in a particular physics paper comes from, but then a Lagrangian or action or superpotential is stated and I don't know how it's derived. ...
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### Where did this equation come from ∠I+ ∠E = ∠A+ ∠D?

$\angle I +\angle E=\angle A+\angle D$ Angle of incidence + angle of emergence = angle of prism (Normally $60^\circ$) + angle of deviation. If their sum is not equal,we made personal error in doing ...
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### Produciton of EM waves with differing wavelengths

Sun is the major source of electromagnetic radiation. Then if the source is the same, how are different EM waves with differing wavelengths produced?
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### Why does Quantum Electrodynamics Allow a Photon to Exist Temporarily as a Positron and an Electron?

In this question... Why does a photon colliding with an atomic nucleus cause pair production? ...I asked why a photon colliding with a atomic nucleus can become an electron and a positron. The ...
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### Very large absorption lines in stellar spectrum

I was puzzled by the wide absorption lines in a stellar spectrum I found. The following is what I expect absorption lines to look like - thin, crisp lines: However, I found this stellar spectrum, ...
478 views

### Accelerating onto and over inclined plane

Consider an RC car going off a jump. What angle is optimal to achieve the greatest distance? The height of each jump is the same. The angle of the jump and the related length of the jump changes. ...
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### Why don't gravitational waves free stream

Simply hot dark matter is not allowed due to free streaming. So do gravitational waves: a) free stream if not why not?-Surely they can since they are relativistic an weakly interacting. b) if they ...
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### Most efficient type of heat pump

Can I make a heat pump beat the Carnot efficiency? Why is the Carnot process the most efficient one? If I have a heatpump that is sphere shaped, and cascaded in layers like a onion can I beat Carnot ...