# All Questions

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### Other Gross-Neveu like theories?

By "Gross-Neveu like" I mean non-supersymmetric QFTs whose partition function/beta-function (or any n-point function) is somehow exactly solvable in the large $N_c$ or $N_f$ or 't Hooft limit. ...
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### Can thick-film reflection holograms be used to create true mirrors?

Experimental alert: Someone may be able to answer this question experimentally simply by going to a shopping mall and finding the right piece of holographic jewelry. My question is whether the type ...
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### Building a LED lamp, which is the brightest? 3 LEDs of 2500 mcd or 1 LED of 6000 mcd?

I want to build the brightest lamp, for it to be seen at daylight, should I use 3 2500 mcd LEDs or 1 6000 mcd? And also Why?
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### What is the farthest-away star visible to the naked eye?

My girlfriend and I were watching Cosmos, and something Carl Sagan said got us wondering what the farthest-away visible star is. Obviously "visible to the naked eye" is a fuzzy concept that might have ...
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### using a unitary matrix to transpose

A unitary matrix U is a matrix such that the conjugate transpose of U, when multiplied on the right with U, yields identity. My question is, is it possible to obtain the transpose of any density ...
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### How to express answers where inequalities are involved?

Part of the floor of a workshop is inclined at 10 degrees to the horizontal. This is to allow the safe storage of steel cylinders. A cylinder of mass 7000 kg is stored as shown in the diagram (c the ...
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### Quantum cryptography: encryptions

I am studying quantum cryptography and I have a very basic question. Suppose A and B share a secret key k, where k=0 or 1. A wants to send one qubit to B. What A does is, if k=1, she 'flips' the qubit ...
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### How accurate are Mayan astronomical “ephemerides”?

Because of the hype surrounding the "end" of the Mayan calendar (along with the usual cultural relativism and Western guilt) it is nearly impossible to find an objective quantitative assessment of the ...
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### Confused on how to properly use right hand rule

I am having trouble using the right hand rule properly and often find myself putting my hand in awkward orientations. I know you point your hand in the direction of $r$ and then point your fingers in ...
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### Ice skater increase of energy

This may be a very basic question but I am not seeing how it works. Consider the standard example of an ice skate rotating about his/her center of mass and pulling in his/her arms. The torque is zero ...
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### Pump pressure required to fill water tower

I have a water pump at a distance of x meters from a water tower located h meters above the pump through a pipe with diameter d. I am not concerned with the exact value just want to make sure my pump ...
528 views

### Is man-made Carbon Fusion possible?

In a type Ia Supernova, the carbon accumulated in the earlier stages of a stars death fissues to create even heavier elements. Could this be used by humans aswell? Is it theoretically possible to ...
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### How do physicists and astronomers handle leap seconds?

I'm confused by the many contradictory descriptions I see about how UTC leap seconds are accounted for. I understand that there are various ways to handle them in common practice, and I've seen a ...
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### Directionality of angular momentum

I was told that the sum of linear and angular momentum is conserved. Given that angular momentum's direction as a vector is completely arbitrary (I believe there is no physical reason for choosing ...
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### Accelerating expansion of universe - entire universe a non-inertial frame of reference?

If the expansion of the universe is accelerating, doesn't that mean that the entire universe is a non-inertial frame of reference? And if so, what implications does this have (if any)?
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### Meaning of negative frequency of sound wave

Suppose that Alice and Bob are both holding speakers emitting sound at a frequency $f$. Alice is stationary while Bob is moving towards Alice at twice the speed of sound. In the case of Alice, if I ...
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### With Newton's third law, why are things capable of moving?

I've got a rather humiliating question considering newton's third law "If an object A exterts a force on object B, then object B exerts an equal but opposite force on object A" -> $F_1=-F_2$ ...
913 views

### Euler equation of fluid dynamics

I'm trying to obtain Euler equation for a perfect fluid in laminar or stationary flow. A particle fluid is submitted at volume forces and surface force. The fist, in my case, is giving only by gravity ...
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### Rayleigh-Benard Convection

I found this nice paper about RB convection. However I am confused by what is going on page 6. In particular why we are suddenly using Helmholtz equation to find spatially periodic solutions. Aren't ...
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### Lorentz Transformations and Aberration

Why does the azimuthal angle, $\phi$, remain unchanged between reference frames in special relativity? Edit: Here is a link from "Radiative Processes in Astrophysics": ...
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### Can bosons that are composed of several fermions occupy the same state?

It is generally assumed that there is no limit on how many bosons are allowed to occupy the same quantum mechanical state. However, almost every boson encountered in every-day physics is not a ...
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### Calculating partition function of ultra-relativistic 1D gas

This is a problem (Problem 3.16) from the book Statistical Mechanics 2nd Ed. by Pathria. In the problem I have to calculate the partition function of an ultra-relativistic 1D gas ($E_i=cp_i$) ...
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### Finding Rotational Kinetic Energy Of A Clock

The problem I am working on is: Big Ben, the Parliament tower clock in London, has an hour hand 2.70 m long with a mass of 300 kg, and a minute hand 4.20 m long with a mass of 100 kg (see figure ...