# All Questions

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### 2 electromagnetic loops, with light-speed constraints: Is Newton's Third Law violated?

I'm a retired Physics Professor, but I admit I'm puzzled by this... Consider two loops of wire, 2 small dipoles B and C , with a common axis z (facing each other) and (say) 30 cm apart B to C. At ...
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### Is accelerating particles through a chain of accelerators a continuous or batch process?

At the Advanced Photon Source, they use two accelerators before injecting the electrons into the large storage ring. Is the addition of particles to the storage ring done in "batches" (however ...
692 views

### Physics needed to build a top down billiards game [duplicate]

Possible Duplicate: How are these balls reflected after they hit each other? I was wondering what sort of physics equations would I need in order to build a top down billiards game? I tried ...
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### Can we model gravitation as a repulsive force? [closed]

This question is actually related to my earlier question ("what is motion"). The fact that objects move a lot in the universe and that the universe is expanding, can imply that gravity is a repulsive ...
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### Shaping a wire such that a bead sliding on it has exactly isochronous oscillations

Let a wire be shaped according to some even function $y=f(x)$, with $f'(0)=0$ and $f''(0)>0$, and let a bead of negligible size slide frictionlessly on the wire. Let the bead oscillate ...
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### Point particle moving on a frictionless semicircular hill

Consider an point particle moving on a frictionless semicircular hill (curve). The particle's initial kinetic energy is equal to the potential energy on the top of the hill, i.e it has the necessary ...
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### Can an object accelerate to infinite speed in FINITE time (Newtonian)?

Obviously this is impossible in relativity; however, if we ignore relativity and use only Newtonian mechanics, is this possible? How (or why not)?
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### Laser beam shaping

Hi I like to build a laser pointer that reflects different shapes for a project I am working on. I know this can be done with Diffractive Optical Elements. Are there other options? DOEs are expensive. ...
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### Particle physics plots

I'm having a hard time understanding what some of the plots that are presented by ATLAS/CMS actually show. See for example: http://resonaances.blogspot.com/2011/07/higgs-wont-come-out-of-closet.html ...
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### How can a laser pointer have range of several kilometers in atmosphere?

Laser pointers manufacturers claim that some pointers have range of several kilometers. Okay, they use a powerful laser, but that powerful laser usually has power less than one watt. Okay, the laser ...
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I have some questions about Pade approximants. Given a divergent power series $\sum_{n >0} a(n)x^{n}$ can we use a Pade Approximant to it $R(x)$ so we can obtain a SUM of the series for every ...
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### The feeling of fuzz on the display surface of a Cathode Ray Tube Television

I was always wondering where the feeling of fuzz comes from when touching a CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) television on its display screen when the TV is turned on. Can someone please explain why I feel ...
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### oscillations of blocks connected by a spring

Imagine two blocks of masses $m_1$ and $m_2$ joined together by a spring of spring constant $K$. Now let the spring be stretched by a distance $X$ and then the system is released. suppose during the ...
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### Interpretation of basic free boson propagator (Euclidean action)

In section 2.3.4 of Di Francesco, Mathieu, Senechal's Conformal Field Theory (and I would guess in many other introductory discussions of QFT) one finds a simple sample computation of a propagator ...
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### Physical Explanation for “Kolmogorov -5/3 spectrum” in Fluid Mechanics

According to Kolmogorov, the energy spectrum function of a turbulent fluid is given as, $E(k)=C\epsilon^{\frac{2}{3}}k^{\frac{-5}{3}}$ where $\epsilon$ is the energy flux and $k=\frac{2\pi}{r}$ ...
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### What is a field, really?

There was a reason why I constantly failed physics at school and university, and that reason was, apart from the fact I was immensely lazy, that I mentally refused to "believe" more advanced stuff ...
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### How to know the time a disc takes to stop from rotating and the numbers of revolutions

Assuming I rotate a disk, I want to know how long it takes to completely stop, and the number of revolutions it made since I removed my fingers off the disk. Lets say a DVD I rotate with my fingers. ...
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### Discrete gauge theories

I'm trying to understand a particular case of gauge theories, namely discrete spaces on which a group G can act transitively, with a gauge group H which is discrete as well. From what I've already ...
14k views

### What did Marie Curie do for atomic theory?

There appears to be a distinct lack of agreement in the physics community on what exactly Marie Curie did for atomic theory. Many journals state that Curie was responsible for shifting scientific ...
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### Can pockets of air exist underwater?

If yes, why don't they fill up with water, and can you breathe the air there? Like, it's not exactly atmosphere there, but an underwater cave with higher ceiling. P.S. Possible that it has a ...
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### Where the angular momentum has gone?

I came across an interesting problem when I prepared for the preliminary exam on electromagnetism. Below is the problem in its original words: A metallic sphere of mass, $m$, and radius, $a$, ...
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### How can we be sure that liquid iron/titanium droplets can form around particulates on hot Jupiters - just as they do on Earth and Venus?

I know that we have some solar system analogs. But is there a limit to it?
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### Is CO2 really a potent greenhouse gas for planets around M dwarfs?

The thing with global warming is that it absorbs infrared (IR) radiation from the planet and reradiates much of it back to the planet (whereas the Sun's peak flux is in the visible region, that is ...
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### How did micrometeorite flux change with the age of the solar system?

Do we also have functions for the micrometeorite flux on the Moon, Mars, and even any random body in space as a function of solar distance too?
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### Why are Wilson lines the effective degrees of freedom for high energy partons?

I've read that Wilson lines are the effective degrees of freedom for high-energy partons, when you consider collinear gluon emission. But I'm struggling to find a readable account of this topic. Does ...
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### Simulating eye diagrams

I'm trying to figure out how to simulate eye diagrams for communications systems using Python. I'm not sure I have the theory down completely, though. From what I could figure out using some old ...
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### How to make mirrors give more authentic image of myself

My friend bought two normal mirrors from some shop probably IKEA, looking like this one: My images are different from the two. One is a little fatter and shorter, and the other a little thinner and ...
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### Measuring concentration

I am trying to measure the concentration of a Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) inside a liquid using Gas Chromatography (GC). The liquid contains particles that cannot be sent to a GC, so I am using ...
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### Can Fermionic symmetries be fully integrated into geometric deformation complexes or symplectic reduction?

How should a geometer think about quotienting out by a Fermionic symmetry? Is this a formal concept? A strictly linear concept? A sheaf theoretic concept? How does symplectic reduction work with odd ...
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### Why is oxygen the third most abundant element?

I was reading the article Oxygen finally spotted in space today in which it stated Oxygen is the third most abundant element in the cosmos, after hydrogen and helium. Why would oxygen take ...
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### Does tea stay hotter with the milk in it?

A little thought experiment, similar to this one: Imagine you are making a cup of tea when the door bell rings. You've poured the boiling water into a cup with a teabag in it. As you're just about to ...
324 views

### Identifying a critical phenomena?

I have a system with a number of measurables (in time). Some measurables are discrete some are continuous (within the measurement accuracy). How can I determine whether my system experiences ...
253 views

### Circulate smoke in a closed system

Hey i am by no means a scientist but i have a idea for a art work using smoke. Basically what i want to know is whether it is possible to circulate smoke by means of a pump through a transparent box. ...
558 views

### Cheat sheet of elementary particles

I am trying to teach myself some particle physics. There are too many particles and its too much for me. I hated biology just because of this sort of stuff. Too many names and it was all Greek to ...
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### Flood prediction data and code

Is it possible to use the data that is readily available (e.g. of the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission) to predict the flooding of a region? Would it be necessary to use the refined geoid of Gravity ...
252 views

### Is there a SQCD gluino string, similar to the gluon string?

A gluon string is a particular kind of open string terminated in two particles which are the sources for the field. Is it possible to have a similar arrangement with gluinos? At first glance, it seems ...
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### Why must gluinos be spin 1/2 instead of 3/2?

Is there some condition in the N=1 SUSY algebra telling that the spin of the superpartners of gauge bosons (either for colour or for electroweak) must be less than the spin of the gauge boson? I am ...
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### What's the second terminal in corona discharge?

I don't get corona discharge. There's an electrode (say naked high-voltage wire) and a current develops from that wire and ionizes gas (air) on its way. But where does this current go? What's the ...
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### All significant objects in the universe?

Taking it to the bottom of layman's terms, what would be the shortlist of significant things in the universe? A list I could think of myself would put Energy (at whatever wavelength travelling ...
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### Creation of matter in the big bang

I appreciate your patience to my neophyte question. I am working on my dissertation in philosophy (which has nothing or little to do with physics) about the "problem of naming." Briefly what I am ...