# Tag Info

85

No. To balance perfectly, the pencil would have to be perfectly upright and perfectly still. The uncertainty principle limits how well you can do both at the same time. Momentum and position form a conjugate pair. $\Delta x \Delta p \geq \hbar$. Angular momentum and angular position form one too. $\Delta L \Delta \Theta \geq \hbar$ This doesn't guarantee ...

85

TL;DR: there are many factors that prevent a pencil remaining perfectly balanced. The most important of these is the uncertainty principle that will make the pencil fall over in less than four seconds. For details, read on... Short answer: NO. The first photon of light that hits it would disturb your perfect equilibrium. The moon's tidal forces (which are ...

19

No. The weight of the pencil is roughly 1 Newton, and the area is about 500 square picometer (5 * 10-22) which means the pressure on the tip is around 2 ZettaPascal. That's quite a bit more than what graphite (or diamond) can withstand (that's masured in GigaPascal)

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1

I did not get my copy of Srednicki out but from what you have written... Srednicki is referencing the method of steepest descent. Although these notes look to be better than wikipedia. Another page that is directly applicable to the quantum field theory case is here. In short, exponential integrals may be estimated by the saddle points of the integrand. ...

1

I'm not sure I have fully grasped what you are asking. The equation is for calculating the momentum of the proton in the inertial frame of the observer i.e. the frame velocity is zero by definition. The only thing moving is the proton, at a speed $v$. If, as in your question 2, you have a different frame then the speed of the proton in that frame is given ...

1

Hint: The center of mass of pieces A and B moves in the same path as the intact shell would. (This arises from the conservation of momentum.) Edit: The gravitational force is only acting along the vertical direction. So there is net acceleration only in the vertical direction. Looking at the horizontal one, if we neglect things like air resistance (which ...

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