# All Questions

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### How did the radiative flux of each gas giant planet change with respect to time (since their formation)?

We know that each gas giant planet was warmest when it was young. This warmth came from internal heating from both radioactive decay and from gravitational potential energy. This warmth, in turn, ...
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### Refractive Index formula for denser to rarer medium

I learnt that the formula for refractive index when light travels from rarer to denser medium is (sin i / sin r) where i = angle of incidence r = angle of refraction Is the same formula used for ...
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### How does Cooper pairing work?

Cooper pairs are one of the models how superconductivity is explained. What still baffles me is how a vibration of the crystal lattice (the so-called phonon) can interact with the electron (an actual ...
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### Could asteroseismology have a significant potential to unravel the mechanisms of solar cycles that last thousands of years?

Could asteroseismology have a significant potential to unravel the mechanisms of solar cycles that last thousands of years? And what about solar cycles 1 billion years ago and 2 billion years ago ...
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The bullet with mass $$m_{ball}=0.2 kg$$ travels with speed $$v=2 \frac{m}{s}$$ and hits Plasticine sphere with mass $$m_{sphere}=2.5 kg$$ and get stuck. I need to find the amount of heat ejected. How ...
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### Was Einstein wrong when he said nothing can go faster than the speed of light?

If the universe is constantly expanding faster than the speed of light, how could Einstein be right?
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### How do you solve Laplace's equation for a parallel plate capacitor?

I would like to find the analytic solution to the problem of two plates of opposite electric potential. I have already solved this numerically as shown in the picture below. I'm also wondering what ...
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### Effect of waters changing specific gravity on objects apparent weight placed in liquid

My goal is to monitor the change in specific gravity of a liquid over a period of time. My question is: What are the appropriate formula for determining expected apparent weight of an object immersed ...
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### Does thermal energy include the kinetic energy of the electrons?

Or is the kinetic energy of the electrons not counted towards the thermal energy? (In other words only the energy of the lattice structure is counted)
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### Cabbibo Mechanism And Mass and flavor eigenstates

When we say that the flavor basis is not a stationary basis (In Cabbibo mechanism), we mean that the hamiltonian is diagonal in flavor basis. But which hamiltonian do we have in mind? Is it the weak ...
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### How do I find angular and linear velocity after normal force and “infinite” friction force?

Look at this picture: http://i.imgur.com/mY8ShkV.png Here we have a ball resting on top of a platform (the contact point is marked red). I know the normal vector (marked green). I also know the mass, ...
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### Heisenberg picture usage - Merzbacher 14.106

I am trying to understand a line in the quantum mechanics book by Merzbacher, specifically the second line of equation 14.106. The problem is a forced quantum harmonic oscillator. The Hamiltonian ...
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### Why the electric potential of earth is zero?

For a localized charge distribution the potential is set to zero far away from the charge distribution (at infinity) Now, when grounding a conductor, i.e. connecting it to Earth, it is said that we ...
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### A black torch to darken everything

Can we ever have a black colored (the color of the light and not the body's color) torch that darken (or dis-illuminates) everything? While compared to a normal torch it would function in an opposite ...
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### Newton's Second Law Questions

The total mass is 2300kg (weight = 5072lbs). Find the size of the force due to wind and rolling friction when the van speed is 44.86mph (1mph= 0.447m/s). I am really at a loss of what to do here. ...
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### Is a capacitor in an open circuit charged?

Say I have a circuit consisting of a battery, a wire, an open switch, and a capacitor. The circuit is open since the switch is open. My book says that the capacitor will only be charged when the ...
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### Breatheability of atmosphere above 3000 meters [on hold]

I would like to offer you a slight correction on your statement that 3000 m is about the limit of breathable atmosphere. Unless I misunderstood you, I need to point out that many people live in ...
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### Info request on studying QIT/QIS or QM with a Computer Science background

I've been considering a career change for a long time and recently discovered the Two-Slit Experiment, which, to put it frankly, blew my mind. I then started some hefty reading and investigation into ...
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### Superconducting wire in a Magnetic Field?

A superconducting wire($SC$) is moved rapidly in a magnetic field( $1$ $Tesla$), what would happen to the wire? Are there any forces induced of attraction or repulsion? In a typical conductor, we ...
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### Auxiliary fields in supersymmetry

I know that auxiliary fields can be used to close the supersymmetry algebra in case the bosonic and fermionic on-shell degrees of freedom do not match. Could somebody please elaborate on this concept ...
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### Pathria's “Statistical Mechanics” first edition

Does anyone know where I could find and purchase the book "Statistical Mechanics" by R. Pathria, in 1st edition (the 2nd and the 3rd are readily available, but I really need the first). I believe the ...
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### Infinite Mirror Face to Face With Infinite Two Way Mirror

If you are in deep space, and there is an infinite plane mirror, and in front of it there is another infinite mirror that is two way, with the see through side towards you, what do you see? Is it the ...
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### Does the stretching of space time have a limit?

Why does the stretching of spacetime have no limit? If multiple universes exist. Wouldn't each universe occupy a defined area? If these universes do occupy a defined area wouldn't there be a limit to ...
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### Effective aperture of isotropic antenna

I have always taken for granted that 'the aperture of a loss-less isotropic antenna is $\dfrac {\lambda^2} {4\pi}$'. On a whim, I tried to look up how this expression was derived, but so far I have ...
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### Can you replace the backlight of a thin film transistor (TFT) with a mirror?

I basically know how TFT' displays work. They have on both sides a polarizing foil, in 90 degrees with the crystals in the middle modifying which light particles should pass through or not. The light ...
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### Integration constants in Maxwell's equations (ambiguousness?)

In classical electrodynamics, if the electric field (or magnetic field, either of the two) is fully known (for simplicity: in a vacuum with $\rho = 0, \vec{j} = 0$), is it possible to unambiguously ...
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### Can resistance of wire be ignored

I was doing some physics homework involving direct current circuits and resistors in series, and I started to question the accuracy of the following property of resistors in series, namely that the ...
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### energy of electrons outside an atom

The higher the quantum number(energy levels)m the higher the energy. What does the energy refers to? Kinetic energy, potential energy, or the total mechanic energy?
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### Why does Se-82 undergo double beta decay?

Looking at the decay chain, I saw it undergoes double beta decay. How is it feasible for something to undergo a simultaneous double decay?
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### Dark matter and tides

As I understand, "dark matter" is what they call a theoretical substance which is only known by it's influence upon velocity curve of the galaxy. If indeed the gravity of "dark matter" is so strong ...
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### A way to determine the exact location of the Big Bang?

See What is our location relative to the Big Bang?, which contains the following: The conclusion is that the Big Bang happened everywhere, all at once. Phys.SE users Ali and WernerCD reached this ...
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### Why would a pendulum experiment give $g > 9.8\ \mathrm{m/s^2}$?

I am taking an introductory lab course in which we've done an experiment on the physical pendulum. We've seen that for small oscillations, the period is ...
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### Calculating states of entangled and disentangled qubits

I'm writing a quantum computer simulator (about 8 qubits) and I know most of the basics (i.e. how to calculate the effect of a quantum gate on a qubit). But I have hit a wall. Is it possible, with ...
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### Way to produce energy with little or no friction involved?

Is there a way to produce energy in space, (a satellite), that will endure little or no friction?