physics

I just finished watching George Smoot's TED talk on the Design of the Universe. In it, he says that "tiny fluctuations" in the otherwise smooth distribution of matter were ultimately responsible for the structure we see in the universe. My understanding is that those fluctuations are the...

As I've been trying to lose weight recently, it occurred to me that losing weight is a perfect example of Einstein's equation showing that mass is the equivalent of energy. You expend more energy, you take in less mass, and you lose weight. Then it occured to me that the amount of mass I've...

This is a very cool interactive scale tool. http://primaxstudio.com/stuff/scale_of_universe/ Which has generated two questions. First, where would photons be? I know they are point particles and have no size; what does this mean in relation to the Planck length? Are photons smaller, the...

Hi folks, my girl friend and I recently bought a hammock for my rooftop terrace. It didn't come with extra rope, so my girl friend went to a home improvement store later that day and bought some. I told her not to be too thrifty and buy something strong, as the forces pulling at the ropes of a...

Do you think it is possible to directly measure the wave-function of quantum mechanics?

Saw this question in the comments here and it made me wonder as well: In the LHC, the two beams rotate in opposite directions each at close to the speed of light, but from a particle's point of view, another particle can only approach it at c, so why not have the two beams of particles going at...

You are riding a Merry-go-Round (roundabout in the UK), which itself is on a train with no windows. The Merry-go-Round is rotating at a constant speed of 30 mph at the circumference. Would you be able to detect any difference when: a) The train is travelling in a straight line at a...

This is something I think a lot of people seem to get wrong (based on earlier threads and spam emails). A perpetuum mobile is a construct that is physically theorethically possible. IF you were to be able to construct something of totally frictionless materials and IF you were able to place...

The discussion of whether pressure can be negative has come up again in the forum. I have started this thread for people to present the evidence either way. My understanding is that pressure can be negative. Let us start with a defintion of pressure (wiki): Conjugate variables of...

There are several failures in current Nuclear Physics. I will give here an example so that to be understood by a lay man. Look: 1- The interaction proton-neutron occurs through the strong nuclear force, which is 100 times stronger than the electromagnetic interaction. 2- The spin of...

I was wondering what would have become of the asteroid that struck Jupiter in 2009. Does it now form part of Jupiter's rocky core? Or was it vaporised in the atmosphere? Which lead me to: Could one theoretically fly a spaceship into Jupiter or Saturn, skim around their rocky cores and emerge...

http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/26276/ Don Page, a theoretical physicist at the University of Alberta in Canada, presents arguments against the idea that physical constants have been fine-tuned by some unseen omnipotent being who has set them up in a way that specially benefits mankind.

I was speaking to a friend of mine about photovoltaic cell chemistry, and to be honest the majority of it went way over my head, but the issue of efficiency came up. As I was able to comprehend it, the issue is that once the electrons get bumped around by the incoming photons, the resultant...

This is perhaps related to the "hard problem of consciousness" in another forum, but I come to it from science, rather than philosophy. (Actually, it was long ago article in Scientific American which brought this to my attention). And that thread is very long and convoluted, and often quite...

http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2010/12/whats-hiding-the-universes-brigh.html?ref=ra What's Hiding the Universe's Brightest Explosions? got another question, if that neutral hydrogen is absorbing UV wavelengths of light, then is that now H plus the light (wavelength)? (For basic...

In recent threads it has been claimed that a computer simulation which operated, accurately, at the planck level, would be effectively equivalent to reality. The (unstated) implication seems to be that at this level, the universe operates like a huge grid, with pieces moving back and forth like...

Saw this on the front page of the NYT this morning, I found it incredibly interesting :p http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/12/science/12cats.html?ref=science SCIENCE! :D

Some very spiffy work out of the National Institute of Standards and Technology: Scientists there have measured the special relativistic time dilation of high precision optical clocks at the impressively slow speed of about 20 miles per hour. They have also used the same high precision clocks to...

The breaking ball. That wicked curveball that makes a sudden sharp "break" as it nears the plate. Bane of hitters on every diamond. But according to new research, whether or not a curveball "breaks" is not determined by how a pitcher throws it, but rather how the batter observes it. So, is...

Well, at the University of Nottingham, among astronomy and physics faculty, ... W7VcLCwnpt4

Just read this at discovery.com Some researchers from Stanford and Purdue claim to have measured a variation in radioactive decay constants over time. Moreover, the variation apparently correlates with season and solar activity. Could this be possible? Why has no one seen this before?

Anyone heard of this? http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/space/7918978/A-universe-could-exist-inside-every-black-hole-claims-scientist.html Wondering if it has any credence.

Hi guys, I need some help from a physics Guru, even if it is to tell me I'm wrong so I can drop it. On an Aviation forum, a discussion came up regarding the forces on an aircraft in a turn. As you'd be aware, and aircraft in a 60deg Angle of Bank turn experiences 2g. People started refering...

This is really an invitation to join the thread on the Dyson fan and weigh in on his physics claims. I know there are experts in this field in the forum tand I would love to find out the truth about the claims. Watch the Youtube video on the second page of the thread where Dyson makes his...

I've been following the Outsider webcomic for a while, and they've just gotten around to the major battle of the first chapter. Since the scenario interests me, I thought it might be interesting to play around with some physics. Premise: Side A (attackers) have managed to surprise side B...

I got an email from a colleague who said that Harper Magazine's July issue Harper's Index stated the following: Has anyone seen anything more specific on this?

I am reading Laurence Gardner's book `The Magdalene Legacy' and he waxes lyrical over what he describes as ancient knowledge of a special state of matter called `ormus'. The net is full of crazy stuff about it, and I have been unable to find any objective information. What I want to know is, is...

I saw an article posted in a thread recently that blew my mind. It is a theory that our universe is merely a hologram - that the concreteness we percieve isn't real, and everything is made up of different light frequencies. The theory is accepted by some scientists, while other scientists...

Ok, I have never taken a physics class, and readily able to plead ignorance whenever the subject comes up. However, between the recent article about building a larger QM structure, and the new movie Repo Men which contains a narrative by Jude Law on the scientist, cat, and poison filled box, I...

Off you go then.