Questions tagged [soft-question]
Questions that ask about some aspect of physics research or study which doesn't involve the actual physics. In general, soft questions can be answered without using physical reasoning.
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How to post on PhysicsForum.com? [closed]
I am confused, since as I try to make single (1) topic about our invention regarding the plasma control in the fusion reactors: I just got message, that I am banned from "spam". I created ...
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General Relativity Book Publication [closed]
I am writing a general relativity book for the high school grads and above. I expect my readers to have basics of calculus and vectors and Newtonian Mechanics - I am covering the necessary Special ...
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Seeking quote about Georges Lemaître and visualization of 4 dimensions [migrated]
I have been trying for some time to track down a quote about Georges Lemaître, which I recall reading a few years ago. The author was another cosmologist, who met Lemaître at a conference. Lemaître ...
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Assistance Needed to Identify PhD Advisor of Herbert Joseph Reich [closed]
I am currently working on creating an academic genealogy tree for physicists specializing in electric discharges. As part of this project, I am trying to identify the PhD advisor of Herbert Joseph ...
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Impact of Physics StackExchange usage on your career [closed]
Can having a quality profile on this site impact your career in a meaningful way?
I am not referring to the knowledge obtained from it. I am referring to the profile per se,for cv purposes.
Does ...
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Why is “water takes the steepest path downhill” a common approximation?
Googling around, I see people saying that water takes the steepest path downhill. Of course, this is just an approximation. Things like inertia, friction, etc. will cause deviations. I’m curious about ...
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What type of variable would you classify $a, b, c$ etc shown in the picture? Would I just call them random, insignificant real values? [closed]
The variables don't really represent anything
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Would it be valid to say $y \propto 2x$ instead of $y \propto x$?
Would it be acceptable to write $y \propto 2x$ or would it be wrong to add the $2$? I just want to describe a relationship in more detail.
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Physical phenomena which were "discovered" by mathematics before they were observed
(I am new to this community. If this is off-topic, please let me know and I will close immediately!)
I was watching a Veritasium video on YouTube regarding the novel solution to the Einstein field ...
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Is there a true one-dimensional object? [closed]
I'm reviewing and expanding my knowledge of dimensions.
We live in three spatial dimensions but, apart from volume, we also have the concept of surface and curve. However, if you write a line on paper,...
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Created a resource to help solve a problem I was having in a lab. Can I publish it?
I had to complete a lab for school assessing the accuracy and precision of calculating a triangular prism’s moment of inertia using a trifilar pendulum. When I wanted to compare my lab results to ...
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I want to start learning physics [duplicate]
I want to start learning physics, could you recommend books and/or other resources to get me started in this field?
I would also like you to tell me what things I should keep in mind before I start ...
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Asimov's nuclear intensifiers
Well, it is fiction: in Isaac Asimov's stories there are "nuclear amplifiers" that magically (fiction without even an attempt of explanation) produce a beam of W-bosons, thus amplifying the (...
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Does using Mathematica to do integrals in problems from Griffith's EM hamper my physics education?
I am a sophomore taking an Electromagnetic Theory class using Griffiths. When working on the problems in the text I sometimes encounter integrals that are quite involved at least compared to what I am ...
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Rigorous justification for firewalls?
Jerusalem lectures by Harlow does a good job in giving a heuristic derivation of firewalls. But the details are not done and no reference is given except for a "related" calculation by ...
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Would there be one rainbow, a double rainbow or bisecting rainbow on a planet with two suns?
I'm just curious if binary stars are low over the horizon and the conditions are just perfect for the formation of rainbow, would I see a single rainbow, double rainbow or two rainbows intersecting ...
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What's the difference between elastic energy and entropic elasticity?
I was reading up some articles on elasticity theory to make an essay about elastic energy in rubber bands, but in the first paragraph of this article it is said that rubber bands do not show elastic ...
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"Natural frequency" seems to be a poorly defined concept [closed]
Per wikipedia: natural frequency, also known as eigenfrequency, is the frequency at which a system tends to oscillate in the absence of any driving force.
Let's take a wine glass as an example.
The ...
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I am a 10th grader and aspire to become like you guys [closed]
People say my idols are Messi and Ronaldo(no hate) but I dont know why I am attracted to Physics and Math.It always amazes me, this is just a dumb question which i suppose is gonna be closed by ...
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Are there any laws of physics that are always true?
I understand that "laws of physics" is a bit of a misleading term since all they really are is just us applying a logical statement about observed physical phenomena in a way that allows us ...
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Does a bottle flip depend on the bottle's water content?
Me and my friend were doing the bottle flip challenge when after a few unsuccessful attempts, my friend told me to add more water to increase the chances of a successful flip.
So my question is
Does ...
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Why was the Higgs boson included in the standard model, but not supersymmetry?
This is a soft question so may not be suitable for this site.
The LHC famously discovered the Higgs boson several years ago, but also seems to have ruled out several hoped for versions of ...
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What is the purpose of making notes in a Physics degree? [closed]
I have a general question regarding the importance of taking/making notes in Physics degree.
My issue is this: I feel taking/making notes is taking up way too much of my time, and I feel like I’d be ...
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Is the unit $m^2$ for area size ambiguous? [closed]
In normal case, we use $m^2$ to represent the size of an area - the product of two distance whose corresponding quantities are perpendicular. But it can also be simply the square of one distance, such ...
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Simple everyday examples to represent the concept of Quasiparticles - Bubble example
I was sawing a Youtube Video about Quasiparticles (for this topic it doesn't matter which one), but the video host present examples that were very far for being familiar to a wide audience.
In my ...
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Can we estimate or quantify Experimental uncertainty from computational uncertainty? [closed]
Causes of Experimental uncertainty can range from limited accuracy of the equipment to variation of environmental conditions. Is there a way to address these experimental uncertainty through model of ...
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Can we say the momentum of a system is always equal to the momentum of the components of the system? [closed]
For ex if a ball of mass m undergoes an oscillatory motion in a bowl of mass M placed on planet where all surfaces are smooth( no friction ), while considering the part of the motion of the ball from ...
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On Bohr's response to EPR
If I understand correctly, the EPR paper (1935) points out that quantum mechanics is incomplete theory if it describes individual particles and measurements. This is true by the mathematical formalism....
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Is there a physical interpretation of why Christoffel symbols do not transform like a tensor? [duplicate]
I understand mathematically why they don’t, but I was hoping someone could provide a physical interpretation to this. Is there a physical consequence of this fact?
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Are expressions like "x axis," "x dimension," "x direction," "x plane," "x boundary," etc. all hyphenated? [closed]
I'm not a native speaker of English. I'm currently writing a journal article and want to make sure I follow all conventions properly. Are expressions like "x axis," "x dimension," &...
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Quantum Theory Texts Advocating Specific Interpretations [duplicate]
I'm looking for comprehensive textbooks or monographs on quantum mechanics that inherently advocate specific interpretations. I've found a few over the course of time such as Ballentine's or Dürr's ...
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Confusion about near-identical terms: gravity, gravitation, gravitational force - are they all the same?
As my other questions also point out, I study this for fun. I am in no university yet.
as the title (hopefully summarizes), my question is this:
is these words(or terms,) the same?
gravity
...
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Is there a formal definition of machine? [closed]
In physics, especially in mechanics, textbooks talk of machines. But I have never actually come upon a formal definition of machines. Is there in some text a formal, rigorous definition of when a ...
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Why is particle creation and annihilation not observed on a macro scale?
I am new to QFT and the idea of particle creation/annihilation so this will likely be a soft question. I have read that due to special relativity, particles come in and out of existence (and some ...
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I finished a Quantum Physics course. What is next? [closed]
I have finished the Quantum Mechanics: Beginner to Expert course on Udemy. After finishing it, I felt like I'm an expert at QM and went to PSE to answer someone's question. It's pretty obvious what ...
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How particles are seperated to prove the existence of quantum entanglement?
I understand that quantum entanglement has been proven but I could not find on the internet how they have separated the required particles far away. Can anyone describe it a bit or send me a link to ...
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Confused on the types of solutions to Einstein field equations in General Relativity
Context
While reading about the types of solutions to The Einstein Field Equations in General Relativity, I came across the following article.
Where they explain that Karl Schwarzschild provided the ...
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Why are differential equations used a lot in physics?
I have heard from my physics teacher that differential equations are very useful in physics. In what parts of physics exactly is it useful? Why are they generally useful?
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How do physicists "discover" those equations that describe a physical phenomenon? [closed]
I have been looking for the answer to that question for a long time, I have spoken with people who according to them "know" about physics, the answers they always give me is "they do it ...
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What processes are used to enumerate stable operating regimes and testable hypotheses?
It seems that in physics there are two key processes,
Phenomenology: Constructing a qualitative description of the phenomenology through experiment, observation, and explanation
Synthesizing: Taking ...
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How to teach yourself physics systematically？ [closed]
I'm just a university student and I am not physics majors, but I am interested in physics. I plan to self-taught physics. However I don't know how to teach yourself physics systematically. I want to ...
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What is the origin of the name "degeneracy" pressure and "degenerate" Fermi gas?
What is the origin of the name "degeneracy" pressure and "degenerate" Fermi gas? I was trying to find the first paper that used the term "degenerate/degeneracy" to ...
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Are all Astronomers also technically physicists? [closed]
There is a website many schools will use to show their students job descriptions to give them inspiration and know what they wish to be when they grow up, show them some options, you know?
Well, I was ...
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What is the difference whether a space is used between number and unit for temperature? [closed]
When talking about temperature, or temperature change, -32.5 ℃ (with space), and -32.5℃ (no space) are two common expressions. Are they the same?
If there is no space is used, there is a problem about ...
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How is the angle of a ship wake measured?
I was wondering how is the angle of a ship wake measured?
I don't really undesrtand how the following images determine the angle of the ship wakes, as there isn't a defined edge.
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Why the primitive unit cell is called primitive?
while reading solid state physics I came about the concept of primitive and non-primitive unit cells and I was wondering about why it is called primitive.
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Are mathematical physics and theoretical physics the same thing at highest levels? [duplicate]
To my understanding Mathematical physics is about how one could find a rigorous basis to understand physics/ study the mathematics used in physics. However, high level theoretical modern physics like ...
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What is the difference between "derive" and "predict"? [closed]
I'm working on attaining a better understanding of physics through independent study following S&Z 12E, and my book has asked me to derive a quantity from given laws and principles. I was able to ...
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What quantum mechanical concepts have been used in the "soft" sciences?
At the smallest/simplest level (quantum mechanics), our models of physics becomes less deterministic and more probabilistic. This is also (very) generally what occurs in the most complex sciences (...
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Probability in the Multiverse Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics [duplicate]
The Multiverse Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics interprets a quantum decision as different universes, each with each outcome. I was wondering how probability plays into this. For example, if we ...
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