# All Questions

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### The angle to shoot moving object

I am obliged to count very simple problem (at least it seemed that it is simple, I hope it isn't to simple for this site). So i got observer who is standing $H$ below the object. The object is fired ...
377 views

### If nothing can travel faster than the speed of light, how can there be parts of the universe we can't see? [duplicate]

Assuming we originated from a single infinitely dense point in space time in the big bang, how can there be parts of the universe that we can't see as the light has not reached us yet, if nothing can ...
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### Differentiate wave speed, don't understand

The speed $v$ of some wave is $ω/k$ and I want to differentiate this with respect to $k$. Apparently this equals: $dv/dk = d(ω/k)/dk-ω/k^2$ But I don't understand why. Isn't this just saying "the ...
505 views

### Is every electromagnetic radiation considered “light”?

Somebody mentioned on Freenode chatroom for physics that All Electromagnetic Radiation are delivered in form of Photons not just light. Is it true? Does that mean if we get a THF electrical ...
165 views

### What is the intepretation of the electromagnetic tensor?

Let $A$ be the four-potential, then we know that we can form the electromagnetic tensor as $F=dA$. This is usually done as a way to have a better writing of Maxwell's equations. So, to simplify the ...
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### Free fall from space [duplicate]

If you leave a ball weighing 10 kg at a height of 500 km above sea level (neglecting air friction). How can calculate how long the ball hits the ground and what will be its speed? I know that: On ...
362 views

### What makes different metals conduct better?

If a metal is a Fermi sea, what makes different metals better conductors? Clearly, one valance electron dominates. All things being equal, I would have assumed that the bigger atoms, with more ...
347 views

### Renormalizing composite operators

Consider the QED Lagrangian, {\cal L} = \bar{\psi} ^{(0)} ( i \partial_\mu \gamma^\mu - m ) \psi ^{(0)} - e A _\mu ^{(0)} \bar{\psi} ^{(0)} \gamma ^\mu \psi ^{(0)} - \frac{1}{4} ...
736 views

### Spin-statistics theorem proof details

Recently I have read one book where there was some incomprehensible proof of the Pauli's spin-statistics theorem. I want to ask about a few details of the proof. First, the author derives ...
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### Atmospheric heating and the reduction in viscosity

The oceans are becoming less viscous as they are heated. I'd imagine a similar effect is likely occurring in the atmosphere as well. What, if any, effect would this reduction of viscosity have on ...
169 views

### Many times speed of light [duplicate]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/24/theory-of-everything-big-bang-discovery_n_5019126.html What does "many times speed of light" really mean in this context? For a layman it's easy to draw wrong ...
115 views

### What is the cheapest way to land a grain of sand on the moon? [closed]

I have a payload that is the size and density of a grain of sand. I want to land it intact on the moon, but I am not particular about location beyond that. What is the least expensive way to get it ...
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### Could the phase factor $i$ be replaced by “matrix representation” totally in quantum mechanics? [duplicate]

It seems that $i$ plays an important role in quantum mechanics (Q.M.). On the other hand, linear algebra plays such an important role in Q.M. too. So would linear algebra, such as a matrix be able to ...
263 views

### Electricity Flow and Ground Wire

Pre-face: My step-father and I were turning the heat down on the water heater. He demonstrated that touching the ground wire doesn't shock you. My understanding is that the ground wire doesn't have ...
81 views

### Electromagnetic force interaction

As far as I know, the electromagnetic force only interacts on particles with electrical charge, but I was told that the electromagnetic force was involved in the following reaction: ...
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I know I have posted this question before some time ago. But no one could help so I decided to put my problem in another background. The Schrödinger equation of a free scalar field is given by ...
608 views

### What's this about kinetic energy increasing with the fifth power of length?

I don't quite understand this quote from Stephen J. Gould's Ever since Darwin, where he talks about the compensating physical characteristics of organisms for their size. Other essential features ...
55 views

### General Relativity representations

General relativity is said to be essentially unique. What is the equivalence relation that links the different constructions? In other words, is the equivalence relation called isomorphism or ...
489 views

### How to obtain band dispersion from a band structure diagram?

Reading about bands dispersion, I came across the following (Computational Chemsitry of Solid State Materials): ...
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### Renormalizing with external momenta set to zero

I've often seen in textbooks that authors renormalize diagrams by setting external momentum to zero. Under what conditions is this justified? An example of this is done in Manohar and Wise's book on ...
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### Spatial bound on the internal electron structure

In 2006 the radius for a possible internal structure of the electron has been pinned down to $10^{-18} m$. This validates the approximation of electrons as point particles at long distances, e.g. in ...
112 views

### Adiabatic Expansion with expanding control volume

I have a tube with a length $L$ and diameter $d$ that is open on 1 side. At a certain point (say $x$) from the closed end of the tube, I have a gas with a high pressure. At this point, $x$, there is ...
113 views

### A few questions about interacting quantum field?

In interacting quantum field, we think that interaction is adiabatic switch on/off. So in the infinite past, we can think there is no interaction, so we can have particle interpretion. There are four ...
141 views

### Collection Efficiency of Photon

I am currently reading this paper: http://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.112.116802#references In the second column of text in page 2, the author makes various claims about the ...
522 views

### Why does the dimension of the electric charge depend on the number of spacetime dimensions?

We can find via dimensional analysis that the dimension of the electric charge varies with the dimension of space-time $(D+1)$: $$[\text{charge}] = (\text{eV})^{(3-D)/2}.$$ It is dimensionless if ...
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### Quantum fluctuations in the non-relativistic limit

Is there any way to describe quantum fluctuations in ordinary quantum mechanics? For instance, a proton fluctuating into a proton-$\pi^0$ state and then back to a proton? What are the relevant ...
164 views

### Wave equation for de Sitter invariant Green's functions

In several papers on QFT in de Sitter space (curvature set to $1$) it is asserted that the Klein-Gordon equation obeyed by the two point function of the free fields: $$(\square-m^2)G(x_1,x_2)=0$$ can ...
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### Do beam splitters work for very broad photons? (frequency bandwidth, spatial extent)

If I send a single photon through a usual beam splitter, is there a limit for the beam splitter to work properly related to the photons broadness in frequency or in space? For example a femto second ...