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Top Questions

22 votes
6 answers
4k views

How do you know mercury changes monotonically with temperature if mercury itself is used to make the thermometer?

8 votes
10 answers
2k views

How do we know what physics or science textbook said is correct? [closed]

11 votes
4 answers
4k views

Is electric field inside a conductor really always zero?

12 votes
5 answers
3k views

Why we use vector sum to calculate net potential in AC circuits?

11 votes
5 answers
2k views

Can the collapse of the wave function be modelled as a quantum system on its own?

6 votes
4 answers
2k views

What does it mean for the laws of physics to "break down" at a singularity? [duplicate]

2 votes
6 answers
2k views

Is it possible to describe every possible spacetime in Cartesian coordinates? [duplicate]

3 votes
5 answers
1k views

How can you determine direction of spin-1/2 states?

10 votes
3 answers
1k views

Why isn't the penetrating depth of electromagnetic radiation consistent with its frequency?

8 votes
2 answers
3k views

Do Boltzmann brain thought experiments suggest literally anything can form randomly?

7 votes
1 answer
2k views

Does glass undergo internal damage in a similar way to wood?

3 votes
3 answers
3k views

Why is there an exponential in the radial component of the hydrogen electron orbital wavefunction?

9 votes
3 answers
916 views

How could one measure the capacity of a battery with one instantaneous meter reading?

8 votes
3 answers
2k views

Why is aurora borealis circular in shape when viewed from space?

9 votes
3 answers
1k views

Confusion about outer product in QM

9 votes
1 answer
2k views

What led physics to "anticipate" the tau particle?

5 votes
5 answers
918 views

Why isn't the moment of inertia of a cylindrical tube the difference of those of two cylinders?

15 votes
2 answers
1k views

What physical processes other than scattering are accounted for by QFT? How do they fit into the general formalism?

7 votes
3 answers
985 views

Why are Coulomb forces on two charges the same?

8 votes
2 answers
643 views

How does the covariant derivative satisfy the Leibniz rule?

7 votes
1 answer
1k views

Equation in Noether's paper

10 votes
3 answers
1k views

Incompatibility of the Lorentz force with electromagnetic radiation

5 votes
3 answers
693 views

How does indeterminism lead to deterministic laws?

1 vote
2 answers
822 views

Will the ball fall down?

3 votes
8 answers
362 views

Why does a higher frequency mechanical wave have more energy?

4 votes
1 answer
748 views

Do Killing vectors form a Lie-algebra?

1 vote
4 answers
446 views

How to explain the time dilation effect non-mathematically (without Lorentz transformation)?

3 votes
2 answers
159 views

The limit of GR with infinite speed of light $c$

5 votes
4 answers
548 views

Doubt regarding measurement of spin in quantum mechanics as per 1st chapter of Quantum Mechanics, A Theoretical Minimum by Leonard Susskind

3 votes
3 answers
683 views

Confusion of variable vs path in Euler-Lagrange equation, Hamiltonian mechanics, and Lagrangian mechanics

9 votes
1 answer
655 views

QM from the uncertainty principle?

4 votes
3 answers
278 views

Can an Electric and Magnetic fields be non-perpendicular? [duplicate]

5 votes
3 answers
580 views

Where does the negative signature case come from in the Pythagorean derivation of distances in spacetime?

4 votes
1 answer
727 views

Doubt regarding an assumption made in an example in Griffiths

8 votes
2 answers
358 views

Speed of light postulate in special relativity in inertial vs. non-inertial frames

2 votes
2 answers
423 views

Why are the two expressions of entropy for a degenerate two-state system contradictory?

1 vote
2 answers
325 views

Does a small domino toppling a large domino violate conservation of energy?

1 vote
1 answer
1k views

Why are particles still a thing? [closed]

3 votes
2 answers
645 views

Bernoulli's principle at molecular level

6 votes
1 answer
463 views

What happens to left-over energy in atomic excitations?

6 votes
2 answers
347 views

Help understanding quote on theory and knowledge in Gravitation (Misner, Wheeler, & Thorne, 2017)

4 votes
1 answer
921 views

Why does a current loop obey Newton's third but a charged particle doesn't?

3 votes
2 answers
334 views

Why is the Riemann curvature tensor not zero?

3 votes
3 answers
253 views

Motional EMF and Faraday's law in this case

2 votes
1 answer
666 views

Do superconducting materials have "zero" work function?

2 votes
2 answers
1k views

What kind of coordinate change is needed to make gravity disappear?

2 votes
3 answers
278 views

Validity of Ohm's to non-steady currents

8 votes
1 answer
941 views

Can entropy of a closed system really change?


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