# All Questions

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### Is the stability matrix of a linearised RG flow always diagonalisable?

This is a follow up on "Why are the eigenvalues of a linearized RG transformation real?". My question is simple: Is there some physical (or mathematical) reason for the stability matrix of ...
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### Do cutouts in 3d objects affect their heat expansion

If you heat (assume evenly) a 5 mm sheet of metal containing a cut away hole 20cm diameter, so it expands...what would happen to diameter of hole? Increase, decrease, stay same?
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### Free body diagram of mechanisms

The image below shows a mechanism with 2 pin joints. On one of the pin joints, there is a torsional spring that exerts a torque $M_s = \kappa \theta$ (rest state is at $\theta = 0$). A force $F$ is ...
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### Casimir effect with super conductors

Do the plates in the Casimir effect need to be metal? What if one uses super conductors? Is there any difference theoretically/experimentally?
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### Movement of a capacitor

What will happen if a capacitor is accelerated or rotated very very fast? Will its capacitance decrease? Will one of the plate be able to hold the electrons which is providing the Potential ...
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### Power dissipation in circuits:Why is high voltage used in power lines?

I know this question has been asked before, but there is one doubt I still cannot clear. Power dissipation is proportional to $I^2R$. Does this not mean that it is also proportional to $V^2/R$? If ...
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### How thin a practical capacitor can be?

According to the formula of a $parallel$ $plate$ capacitor... $C$ $=$ $\dfrac{\epsilon_0 A}{d}$ The thinner the capacitor, more the charge it will be able to store... And hence the graph should ...
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### What would we see if we looked at our Solar system from 2,000 light years away with our current technology?

Assuming the tables were turned and we would live in a system like Kepler-422/423/424, some 2,000 ly away. If we'd look at the Solar system with a telescope like Kepler and using techniques like ...
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### Weighing with One-Foot Scale

I stand with left foot on a scale and the other on a piece of effectively incompressible material at the same initial height at the scale's top surface. The weight shown is WL. I repeat with right ...
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### Unstable equilibrium in a pendulum

Consider a pendulum with a bob and a massless, rigid, hinged rod attached to the bob. The bob is at rest at the bottom most position. Neglecting friction, is it possible to impart such a velocity ...
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### Special relativity and missing factors of $c$

I am doing problems in a textbook called 'Introduction to Classical Mechanics' by David Morin. In one of the questions it says the following: In the lab frame, two particles move with speed $v$ ...
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### Vector fields and tensors in E&M

I'm confused by a very basic property of electric fields. The electric field is a vector field. Vectors are tensors. Wikipedia has the following statement in the article about the electromagnetic ...
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### Open string 4-tachyon amplitude for cylinder/annulus topology in bosonic string theory

One knows the formula for the open string $4$-tachyon amplitude for the disk topology in the bosonic string theory : it is proportional to the $s \leftrightarrow t \leftrightarrow u$ symmetrisation ...
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### Information retrieval from a database

Consider a database $\cal D$ containing $N$ entries $A_0, A_1, ... A_{N-1}$, which are some fixed and unknown strings of $k$ bits; you can access this database sending a coherent superposition of ...
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### Expectations values of position in quantum mechanics

In quantum mechanics, we can show that $$\langle r \rangle^{-1} \neq \langle r^{-1} \rangle$$ I can understand this mathematically as the integrals are different but can anyone explain physically - ...
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### How does the weight of the pendulum's bob cause a torque?

I know that a force will cause a torque if the force has a perpendicular component to the distance from the pivot point. However, in the figure above, I can't seem to visualize how the weight of ...
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### Household Electricity

What is actually moving in the wires? Electrons and energy, right? With alternating current, electrons move from atom to atom, practically back and forth in the wires. Mainly, it is energy that is ...
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### If stars are ionized, where are the electrons?

As far as I know, universe is electrically neutral so, If stars are ionized, where are the electrons?
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### Potential Energy in solids: Why are different equations used for deriving lattice constants and for deriving the properties of phonons?

While deriving the equilibrium lattice constants we use expressions for potential like Lennard-Jones potential which have 6th and 12th order terms or Madelung energy for ionic crystals. While ...
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### Can mass be directly measured without measuring its weight?

From Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass Inertial mass measures an object's resistance to being accelerated by a force (represented by the relationship F=ma). Active gravitational ...
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### Why do we use kilograms instead of newtons to measure weight in everyday life?

What was the reason to use kilograms to measure weight (e.g. body weight, market vegetables etc.) instead of using newtons?
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### What is the physical interpretation of the linear coefficient in this ODE for projectile motion?

For the second order ODE governing the position of a projectile subject to air resistance $$m\frac{d^2x}{dt^2} +k\frac{dx}{dt}+mg=0 \quad k>0, \> x(0)=0, \> x'(0)=V>0$$ a ...
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### What is the future of complexity theory in black-hole physics and string theory? [on hold]

I found the recent work by Hayden and Harlow and Susskind very fascinating. I have also heard talks by Scott Aaronson about this emerging connection. In particular this idea of understanding ...
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### Would an ideal gas be colder at higher altitude due to gravity?

Since gas molecules are affected by gravity, wouldn't that make gas molecules at higher than average elevation slower (at the top of their ballistic parabola) and thus colder than air molecules ...
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### Why does a Ball bounce back if Forces are Equal and Opposite?

When a ball is thrown onto a wall, the ball exerts a force onto the wall. According to Newton's Third Law, the wall will exert an equal and opposite force to the ball. Thus, how would the ball be able ...
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### Dicke states, spin squeezing and quantum metrology

Dicke states are by definition simultaneous eigenstates of the $J_z$ and $J^2$ operator. What is the difference between these states and Dicke squeezed (DS) states? I know that these are "entangled" ...
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There is a popular youtube video of some metal beads being thrown out of a flask, literally hovering out of the container My question is how detailed a physical explanation of this phenomenon we ...
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### What determines the energy ratio of beta decay products?

What determines for any particular decay how much energy the electron and neutrino get? Is it just that in the CM frame of the W- the electron and neutrino are back to back, but then back in the lab ...