# All Questions

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### Why isn't centripetal acceleration considered in this problem

Fairgoers ride a Ferris wheel with a radius of 6.00 m. The wheel completes one revolution every 30.0 s. If a rider accidentally drops a stuffed animal at the top of the wheel, where does it land ...
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### Surely force on shell can't be balanced by field momentum?

Imagine a particle with charge $q$ at rest at the origin. It is surrounded by a concentric spherical insulating shell, also at rest, with charge $Q$ and radius $R$. At time $t=0$ I apply a constant ...
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### Waves in water always circular

I have had a question since childhood. Why do we always get circular waves (ripples) in water even when we throw irregularly shaped object in it?
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### Reference on monopole scattering electron?

Any good or even seminal reference on monopole scattering electron is welcome. I heard that this has been resolved by T.T. Wu & C.N. Yang, however, I'm not sure which paper it is.
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### Does brightness of the light remains constant with the variation of the distance with respect to the source in vaccum?

I have this question going in my mind from many days, i.e why brightness of light emitted from any light source around us decreases with distance? The brightness of light from tube light, streetlight, ...
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### Are images of three-dimensional objects also three-dimensional?

Suppose that I produce an image of a dog using a converging lens. I can draw ray diagrams for the nose of the dog as well as the back leg. These are definitely longitudinal points, not transverse. ...
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### Stern Gerlach experiment - only two discrete beams?

The Stern Gerlach experiment was meant to prove the orbital quantization of electrons where there should be +ml,0,-ml states. So for l=2, there should be 5 beams. But they saw 2 beams, which was ...
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### What is a projection method?

Quoting from Solenthaler et. al. Predictive-Corrective Incompressible SPH (ACM Transactions on Graphics, Vol. 28, No. 3, Article 40, Publication date: August 2009) (PDF link here) These ...
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### Will accelerating a massive particle generates a blackhole?

I have a naive question about blackhole. If I accelerate a massive particle very close to the speed of light, the particle will have large energy-momentum tensor. Will it become a blackhole?
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### Heisenberg's uncertainty principle - $\Delta p$

So I was reading this paper, "Limits to Binary Logic Switch Scaling—A Gedanken Model". The following is the paper's abstract: In this paper we consider device scaling and speed limitations on ...
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### How to show that probability and statistics are very important in Quantum Mechanics?

I'm doing a research for my stats class in high school and I chose quantum mechanics as my subject. I narrowed down to electron localization in an atom and radial probability distribution. However, I ...
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### What coefficients may be used for evaluation the heat keeping?

The final goal is to compare two objects (similar to boxes) from the standpoint of keeping the heat inside? May be there is numerical coefficient or any approaches?
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### Interaction of coherent X-rays with matter

If we could irradiate a metal or a plasma with a coherent beam of hard X-rays, would the main effect be an ordered oscillation of the electrons like with a classical EM wave, or "compton-style" ...
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### Steam bath physics

In the steam bath at the health club, why is the "steam" thicker first thing in the morning before it has been used all day and the walls are "hotter"?
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### Surface gravity of Kerr black hole

I'm going through Kerr metric, and following the 'Relativist's toolkit' derivation of the surface gravity, I've come to a part that I don't understand. Firstly, the metric is given by ...
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### Symmetries of relativistic Lagrangian and Hamiltonian systems

In non-relativistic mechanics, the conserved quantities found using Noethers theorem in Lagrangian mechanics are the same as those quantities which are conserved under canonical commutation with the ...
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### 4 of Einstein equations without 2nd order time derivative

This question is related to my previous one and it was a homework problem and was due two weeks ago. Problem：prove that four of Einsteins' equations $$G_{0\nu} = 8\pi T_{0\nu}$$ have to 2nd order ...
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### Specify the Stress Energy Tensor and Calculate the Curvature

I have a simple question about general relativity and the Einstein field equations, I wonder if you can specify the stress energy tensor, i.e. specify some mass distribution in space and then ...
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### Why does the conductivity $\sigma$ decrease with the temperature $T$ in a semi-conductor?

We performed an undergrad experiment where we looked at the resistance $\rho$ and Hall constant $R_\text H$ of a doped InAs semiconductor with the van der Pauw method. Then we cooled it down to around ...
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### causal sketches [on hold]

I don't have much of an idea of how to draw causal sketches. I know that you need to work out the gradient of the light cones, which can be done using a given metric and using null vectors. But how do ...
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### Quantum physics and object location

If I understand correctly, according to quantum physics, subatomic particles can "leap" from one location to another (for example, from a location on earth to a location on the "other side" of the ...
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### Event horizons in Newtonian mechanics and Galilean relativity

I've been revisiting classical physics (in the sense of Newtonian mechanics and Galilean relativity) and I was thinking why can't we have an event horizon in classical physics? Is it because the ...
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### How do non-transverse photon polarizations cancel in Euclidean QED?

First, recall how to write scattering amplitudes in covariant fashion in Minkowskian QED. One starts by considering some process with an external photon whose momentum is chosen to be ...
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### Black hole entangled with the cosmological horizon

Maldacena and Susskind recently proposed a interesting and very suggestive duality between entanglement and topological identification: http://arxiv.org/abs/1306.0533 But are such ideas applicable to ...
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### How do charge carriers move thermal energy? (Peltier effect)

I am having hard time understanding how the charge carriers (electrons and holes) are able to move thermal energy. I am on a high school physics level, so I will probably have a hard time ...
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### Is it Possible to Determine Radiation Levels Using Satelites?

Given recent events in Japan, this got me wondering. Is it possible to determine radiation levels reliably not having Geiger counters near the possible radiation contaminated zone? According to ...
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### Car moves with non-uniform acceleration with decreasing mass [on hold]

Can someone answer this question : The car is in rest position With mass 200 kg (including 180 kg of fuel, i.e dry mass of car is only 20 kg). If the engine provides a force/thrust of 200 N ...
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### How are anyons possible? (another version)

I know that this question has been submitted several times (especially see How are anyons possible?), even as a byproduct of other questions, since I did not find any completely satisfactory answers, ...
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### Two masses connected by a string in horizontal frictionless table

Suppose that two masses with different mass are connected by a string in horizontal frictionless table. Then when there is equal acceleration for two masses, string force would extend in some ...
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### Does greater number of lines of force around the magnet imply greater magnetic field strength around it?

If we sprinkle iron fillings on a sheet of glass placed over a short bar magnet. The arrangement of iron fillings will be similar to the one shown above. Why do some of the iron fillings ...
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### Is causality a formalised concept in physics?

I have never seen a “causality operator” in physics. When people invoke the informal concept of causality aren’t they really talking about consistency (perhaps in a temporal context)? For example, if ...
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### Why does positronium decay into 2 photons more often than into 3 photons?

I cannot find the answer to the above question. I know that para-positronium is created with a probability of $25\%$ and decays into 2 photons, while ortho-positronium is created with a probability ...
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### Resource about Supercontinuum Generation in Fibers

I would like to consult a nice reference that explains the theoretical background of SC generation in optical fibers in detail but more or less self-contained. I would also like to have your opinions ...
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### Does radio use virtual photons?

In radio communication each accelerated electron in the transmitter antenna interacts with an electron in the receiver antenna by exchanging a photon. Is that photon always a virtual photon as ...
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### High Young's Modulus and Tensile Strength of Carbon Nanotubes

I was recently reading about Carbon Nanotubes having extremely high Young's moduli, as well as high Tensile Strength, making them very interesting fibers. However, when I read this I wondered what was ...
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### Separation of variables in various PDEs, physical meaning

The method of separation of variables produces an undetermined separation constant and a family of solutions indexed by the values of this constant. For instance, in the case of an infinitely long ...
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### How to interpret band structures

I'm currently taking a Solid State Physics class, and is currently reading about the quantum mechanical description of solids. I then came across the following figure: It's supposed to be the band ...
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### Quantum barrier for photons [on hold]

In quantum mechanics, a particle may tunnel through a barrier it would not be able to surmount in a classical sense. My question is this: What are all the factors that may prevent a photon from ...
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### Understanding Wikipedia's “Semiconductor Band Structure” diagram where the bandgap appears to increase with increasing density of states

I'm having a bit of trouble understanding the semiconductor band gap diagram on Wikipedia: (from Band gap article). Why is the size of the band gap increasing with the Density of States (DOS) in the ...
When we talk about shear stresses in a fluid, we find that the shear stress is given by $$\tau_{xy} = \mu(\partial_y u + \partial_x v) = \tau_{yx}$$ This relation we get when only looking at one side ...