User doetoe

48 votes

10 answers

9k views

Why are the laws of thermodynamics "supreme among the laws of Nature"?

thermodynamics

asked Dec 22, 2013 at 0:09

44 votes

4 answers

19k views

What is a phonon?

asked Sep 24, 2013 at 19:02

38 votes

3 answers

3k views

Why does glass, in spite of being amorphous, often break along very smooth surfaces?

solid-state-physics everyday-life vibrations glass

asked Jul 9, 2020 at 23:12

27 votes

2 answers

5k views

What exactly do we see on the famous neutrino image of the sun?

experimental-physics neutrinos

asked Sep 12, 2014 at 11:55

22 votes

2 answers

6k views

Why does my infrared thermometer say the sky is at -2 °C?

temperature thermal-radiation atmospheric-science infrared-radiation

asked Jun 21, 2014 at 22:58

20 votes

3 answers

3k views

What is the meaning of the size of a particle in QFT?

quantum-field-theory particle-physics elementary-particles point-particles

asked Jun 25, 2016 at 18:30

14 votes

4 answers

2k views

Why do little chips break off so easily from strong neodymium magnets?

everyday-life material-science ferromagnetism

asked Jul 31, 2021 at 16:59

9 votes

2 answers

730 views

Can the equivalence principle be safely used in non-relativistic mechanics?

newtonian-mechanics classical-mechanics newtonian-gravity harmonic-oscillator equivalence-principle

asked Jan 3, 2021 at 19:48

9 votes

1 answer

2k views

The dual role of (anti-)Hermitian operators in quantum mechanics

quantum-mechanics operators observables

asked Jul 21, 2015 at 8:07

8 votes

1 answer

12k views

Why does glass absorb infrared light?

visible-light home-experiment infrared-radiation

asked Jun 24, 2014 at 23:48

8 votes

1 answer

972 views

What is the idea behind canonical quantization?

quantum-mechanics classical-mechanics operators hilbert-space quantization

asked Apr 28, 2015 at 9:45

8 votes

2 answers

549 views

Does the photon emitted by an electron falling to a lower energy level have a direction?

quantum-mechanics electromagnetic-radiation photons

asked Jan 2, 2014 at 15:33

7 votes

0 answers

249 views

I don't see that general relativity is really needed for GPS to work correctly [duplicate]

general-relativity everyday-life gps

asked Dec 5, 2015 at 22:23

7 votes

1 answer

850 views

Mental picture of interactions in QFT

quantum-field-theory particle-physics soft-question virtual-particles

asked Nov 8, 2016 at 23:35

7 votes

1 answer

395 views

Alice in Wonderland and Systems with a Quadratic Potential

classical-mechanics lagrangian-formalism harmonic-oscillator

asked May 30, 2017 at 23:01

7 votes

2 answers

314 views

Does the concept of the photon as a particle exist in QFT in the path integral formalism? Does the concept of a particle exist?

quantum-field-theory particle-physics quantum-electrodynamics path-integral

asked Jul 22, 2019 at 21:23

6 votes

1 answer

631 views

Why is Penrose's diagrammatic notation for tensor operations not widely used? [closed]

general-relativity differential-geometry tensor-calculus notation

asked Oct 22, 2018 at 16:25

6 votes

2 answers

330 views

How does photon-photon interaction manifest in QED?

quantum-field-theory photons quantum-electrodynamics scattering feynman-diagrams

asked Aug 23, 2021 at 15:32

6 votes

3 answers

513 views

Is general relativity only applicable where the curvature is small?

general-relativity curvature

asked Jun 16, 2017 at 19:30

6 votes

2 answers

185 views

How could the precession of Mercury be known so accurately in the 19th century?

newtonian-mechanics newtonian-gravity astronomy history celestial-mechanics

asked Apr 6, 2017 at 22:15

6 votes

2 answers

2k views

Lagrangian $L' = L + \frac{df}{dt}$ gives the same equations of motion

classical-mechanics lagrangian-formalism

asked May 3, 2015 at 12:16

5 votes

1 answer

647 views

How can I measure the ability of sunglasses to block UV radiation?

electromagnetic-radiation everyday-life

asked Jun 30, 2015 at 14:34

5 votes

5 answers

853 views

Speed of light as a universal speed limit

special-relativity speed-of-light

asked May 18, 2014 at 6:33

5 votes

1 answer

1k views

How to count microstates?

thermodynamics statistical-mechanics entropy

asked Apr 7, 2017 at 17:42

5 votes

1 answer

360 views

How to interpret this image of $AdS_5\times S^5$?

string-theory yang-mills ads-cft holographic-principle visualization

asked Jun 25, 2017 at 0:00

5 votes

1 answer

295 views

State, Dynamics and Interpretation in QFT

quantum-mechanics quantum-field-theory

asked Jul 24, 2018 at 23:41

4 votes

1 answer

104 views

Can indistinguishable microstates evolve into different macroscopic states?

thermodynamics statistical-mechanics entropy

asked Oct 16, 2018 at 10:36

4 votes

1 answer

119 views

Dynamics of the Ising model and its Monte Carlo sampling

statistical-mechanics solid-state-physics ising-model

asked Mar 28, 2019 at 17:22

4 votes

2 answers

218 views

Why does a short lifetime of a nucleon excitation imply a broad mass distribution?

particle-physics scattering heisenberg-uncertainty-principle half-life

asked Jul 3, 2017 at 22:40

4 votes

1 answer

382 views

Is a universe without massive particles scale-invariant?

general-relativity cosmology mass conformal-field-theory scale-invariance

asked Jun 18, 2017 at 22:59

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61 Questions

Why are the laws of thermodynamics "supreme among the laws of Nature"?

What is a phonon?

Why does glass, in spite of being amorphous, often break along very smooth surfaces?

What exactly do we see on the famous neutrino image of the sun?

Why does my infrared thermometer say the sky is at -2 °C?

What is the meaning of the size of a particle in QFT?

Why do little chips break off so easily from strong neodymium magnets?

Can the equivalence principle be safely used in non-relativistic mechanics?

The dual role of (anti-)Hermitian operators in quantum mechanics

Why does glass absorb infrared light?

What is the idea behind canonical quantization?

Does the photon emitted by an electron falling to a lower energy level have a direction?

I don't see that general relativity is really needed for GPS to work correctly [duplicate]

Mental picture of interactions in QFT

Alice in Wonderland and Systems with a Quadratic Potential

Does the concept of the photon as a particle exist in QFT in the path integral formalism? Does the concept of a particle exist?

Why is Penrose's diagrammatic notation for tensor operations not widely used? [closed]

How does photon-photon interaction manifest in QED?

Is general relativity only applicable where the curvature is small?

How could the precession of Mercury be known so accurately in the 19th century?

Lagrangian $L' = L + \frac{df}{dt}$ gives the same equations of motion

How can I measure the ability of sunglasses to block UV radiation?

Speed of light as a universal speed limit

How to count microstates?

How to interpret this image of $AdS_5\times S^5$?

State, Dynamics and Interpretation in QFT

Can indistinguishable microstates evolve into different macroscopic states?

Dynamics of the Ising model and its Monte Carlo sampling

Why does a short lifetime of a nucleon excitation imply a broad mass distribution?

Is a universe without massive particles scale-invariant?