# All Questions

1answer
661 views

### What is the relationship between the Higgs field and quarks?

I have some difficulty considering the relative size of each and the meaning behind the shape of Higgs boson. I ask relating to the structures of both the Higgs field and quarks. How is it that the ...
3answers
9k views

### Does the human body have a resonant frequency? If so, how strong is it?

Inspired by this question on Music beta SE, I'm wondering if the human body has a strong resonant frequency. I guess the fact that it's largely a bag of jelly would add a lot of damping to the system, ...
1answer
528 views

### Rotation of Rockets

I referred the Roll program in space shuttles. But, I can't understand the mechanism. So, They rotate during the launch in order for proper alignment. I know that only tilting, gimbaling or using ...
3answers
709 views

### What is the difference between manifest Lorentz invariance and canonical Lorentz invariance?

I often read that the Lorentz symmetry is manifest in the path integral formulation but is not in the canonical quantization - what does this really mean?
1answer
182 views

### Alpha-stable isotopes

Why some isotopes with positive alpha-decay energy are stable? For example, alpha-decay energy of stable 194Pt is about 1.5 MeV. But there is no stable isotopes with positive beta-decay energy. ...
3answers
586 views

### Planck time, distance, mass? Why do we take those values?

Say we want to make an educated guess for critical values of time, distance and mass, where quantum gravity effects are supposed to be non-negligible. These values are given the prefix "Planck-". Now, ...
1answer
301 views

### Considering the wave function is not 'real', what is interfering?

I find the idea of the wave function being 'just' a collection of numbers (probabilities) quite alluring, and elegant in explaining away the whole 'collapse' business (see Luboš' answer to this ...
0answers
422 views

### Does positronium have a stable crystalline phase?

This is a long shot, but while the 100YSS conference is going on at Houston, i haven't been able to get a grip on myself and think in other, more mundane and short-term rewards as normal people do. ...
0answers
20 views

### Formulas for compressibility of solids (physics) [duplicate]

Possible Duplicate: Formulas for compressibility of solids I have a question which is technically a physics question, but since I have yet to find a good physics forum which accepts Latex, ...
2answers
133 views

### Has there been any serious work in how the world would look if basic physical laws were changed?

Has there been any serious work in investigating how the world would look if certain basic physical laws were changed? Like if gravity or electromagnetism laws were changed to have different ...
2answers
535 views

### Is it possible to have faster-than-light movement in General Relativity?

The speed of light as the maximal possible speed is build into Special Relativity as a premise of the theory. However I know of no such premise in General Relativity. When looking at two stars laying ...
5answers
534 views

### How does the Hubble Redshift work?

I am a little confused about the workings of the Hubble Redshift. I do understand the classical Doppler-effect, however in special relativity the velocity of light c is a natural velocity limit. So ...
2answers
214 views

### Loopy lightning

What causes lightning to follow the path it does ? picture from BBC news: http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/62891000/jpg/_62891901_untitled-1copy.jpg main page: ...
1answer
163 views

### Spike when wavefunction collapses

So, when wavefunction collapses, there is a spike occuring. Does this mean that there are parts with the continuous probability of 0? (For example, x position from -9 to -3 has probability of 0, while ...
1answer
2k views

### What is the difference between infrared heat and “regular” heat?

In Feynman's terms temperature is the speed at which atoms are 'jiggling'. Now, let's suppose I've just eaten a sizable dinner, and my body temperature just got a tad up. Am I emitting more photons in ...
1answer
88 views

### Waves travelling with water flow

Suppose I use a tool to create a circular wave in the river. If there are two fish swimming 1m from the source (2m from one another), they will both feel the wave at the same time. What will happen ...
2answers
5k views

### Ideal gas law, pressure increase and temperature

If I had a container, full with air, and I suddenly decreased the volume of the container, forcing the air into a smaller volume, will it be considered as compression, will it result in an increase in ...
1answer
313 views

### quantum field theoretic models of decoherence

I am interested in whether there is a field theoretic description (there is, so what is it?) of the tensor product (aka density matrix) model of open quantum systems. In particular, I am interested in ...
2answers
1k views

### Are the protons and neutrons in the nucleus arranged in any particular way?

I was wondering this: suppose you have two oxygen atoms. They will both have 8 protons and 8 neutrons in the nucleus (at least if they are the most common isotope). Now, will all those particles be ...
2answers
8k views

### How do you calculate angle of projection?

At what angle the projectile should throw with initial velocity v in order to reach distance d? discard the air resistance, only gravitation acts. So far I got the equations for horizontal and ...
5answers
2k views

### Where does the “g” force that pilots experience come from?

I understand that it has to do with acceleration. Say a pilot does a quick maneuver and experiences a force of 5g. What exactly is happening here? And what is this force relative to? If someone ...
2answers
245 views

### Force to use in harmonic oscillation through the inside of a planet

I am to find an equation for the time it takes when one falls through a planet to the other side and returns to the starting point. I have seven different sets of values - mass of object falling, mass ...
1answer
864 views

### How did Copernicus establish the relative distance to the superior planets?

I understand that the relative distances to the planets had been calculated using various methods since ancient times, and, in particular, that the assumptions of the Copernican model of the Solar ...
3answers
647 views

1answer
216 views

### Zero entropy change

If you put a object in contact with a heat reservoir that is infinitesimally higher in temperature than the object and allow equilibrium to be reached the entropy change is zero right?
2answers
307 views

### Why magnetic monopole found in spin ice don't modify the Maxwell's Equations?

Magnetic monopole predicted by Dirac nearly a century ago was found in spin ice as quasi-particle(2). My question is Why magnetic monopole found in spin ice don't modify the Maxwell's Equations? (I ...
2answers
404 views

### Force and Natural Units

Today in my Physics lecture I suddenly thought of something. We all know that gravitational force is proportional to the two masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between ...
1answer
83 views

### Modeling falling spheres

The following situation interests me and I was wondering if there is software to model it? A large set of n spheres of uniform density and discrete sizes, mass proportional to volume, are dropped ...
1answer
300 views

### How do I measure the temperature of a tiny water droplet?

How do I accurately (+/- 0.1 degrees Celsius or better) measure the temperature of a small (5 to 50 microliter) water droplet without noticeably affecting its temperature? The mass of a thermistor or ...
1answer
305 views

### Relativistic contraction for a wave packet and uncertainty on momentum

Consider an electron described by a wave packet of extension $\Delta x$ for experimentalist A in the lab. Now assume experimentalist B is flying at a very high speed with regard to A and observes the ...
1answer
347 views

### Distance and displacement of an object on a straight line [closed]

I had this homework problem, but don't actually know if what I did is right, or that I even read the problem correctly. Can someone please tell me if this is the right interpretation of the problem ...

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