Physics

If I understood correctly, temperature is simply the average kinetic energy of the particles in a system. Temperature differs from heat in that heat is the total energy in a system, the kinetic + the potential energy. What I don't get is, is temperature dependent on the number of moving particles in the system? Let's say there are 2 isolated systems and in one system there there are 10 moving particles and in the second system there are only 3 moving particles . If in both systems the particles have the same kinetic energy, will both systems have the same temperature regardless of the number of particles?

So I am doing a research paper but im not sure if density affects the bending of light. I have once read a short experiment on the net explaining that density does not affect how much light would bend. http://www.usc.edu/CSSF/History/2007/Projects/J1605.pdf Well, im doing an experiment on the refraction of light and it seems that density doesnt affect the refractive index of the substance. This is the information i got from the web. (i computed for the change in the speed of light by using 1/(refractive index) = change in the speed of light. 68.03% means the speed is 68.03% of the normal speed of light. --------------refractive index-------change in speed--------…

One can (relatively) simply and cheeply synthesise standing waves in water. Presumably thease can nest\stack to create standing (non moving) waves on waves. As there are series of sin waves of varying frequancies and amplitudes which when added together result in square waves can a standing shaped (such as square) wave be made in water?

The moon is on a path around the Earth, while both are on a different path around the sun, while all those are on a different path around the galaxy, while all of them are on a different path around a cluster, while all the previously mentioned things are on a path within a super cluster. I've seen this kind of paths layering before in nature, but can't remember where. Anyhow, it's difficult to visualize a path existing on a larger path which itself exists on an even larger path, where the travelers are heading in the direction of all those paths at once. Is there an easy way to describe this phenomenon?

do they violate causality since they travel faster than light and violate conservation?

The SI units for electrical resistance are s^3 * A^2 / m^2 * kg and conductance has the exact opposite units (dimensions). Same with capacitance and elastance. What would you call the opposite of acceleration, s^2 / m .. This doesn't represent deceleration, but does it represent anything? Or Joules (energy) .. s^2 / kg * ms^2 .. I like the idea that nothing can exist without an opposite (inverse) , but I'm not sure if there is an opposite to Joules, etc.

There are some verry narrow desciptions of life where it must involve growing and breathing and the such. I think that a formal desription should be wider than that but not as wide as I am preposing, however I would like some feedback on some of my ideas. From my POV life is a system that is mathamatically chaotic and is a lurning\evolution system. For example for bacteria each lifeform is changed all the time accoding to the rules of physics and able to make two inperfect coppies of itself. The result of this is that if it gets into a state that is too wrong it breaks up and fails to be a lifeform anymore (dies), a behaviour of the system that results in t…

Is there such a thing as maximum acceleration of mass? For example, mass can't travel at the speed of light. But can the mass of a baseball travel to .5c in one trillionth of a second? Or would it turn into energy? Thanks. Greg

I understand that when one is orbiting the earth in say the Shuttle the feeling of weightlessness is due to you "falling" with the curvature of the earth, however if you are say half way to the Moon and traveling in a "straight line" the force of gravity due to the earth is about 1.3 (if I've worked it out correctly) so would you be floating around in your space capsule? 1.3 is only slightly less than the acceleration due to gravity on the Moon which you can walk on?

What factors contribute to electrical resistance and conductivity at the atomic level?

How is it known the proton and electron have equal charge magnitudes?

Hi, I have to construct a yo yo with the GREATEST amount of time to reach the location below(9.38m+/-0.025m) its starting point. Basically it has to be the slowest yo yo not exceeding 60 minutes. Basic Guidelines: *No battery or motor powered yo yo's *.5m*.5m*.5m size limitation before it descends *Total mass must be more than 0.5 kg but less than 1.0 kg full guidelines here: http://teacherweb.com/MA/WatertownHigh/Duggan/photo5.stm (under Yo-Yo Rules) Please post all ideas, thanks!

why doesn't Mercury simply fall into the sun ? eventually ?

Is it possible for an object with a constant acceleration to exceed the speed of light relative to its point of origin? What force would be exerted upon the object if it were to lose acceleration when nearing c ? The particle would be accelerating in the exact opposite direction if Einstein's theory does hold true. But why is the object deccelerating? If it's true that their is no limit on acceleration then what makes a photon accelerate away from its source then accelerate in the opposite direction so that V is not greater than 3e8 m/s ? An impulse of energy must be exerted on a photon to make it accelerate from its source within a givin time interval, ac…

Are electrons considered to be 2 dimensional within a single frame (i.e. their time was frozen) .. Also can an object in 2 spatial dimensions have mass? Thanks.

"Black Hole War: My Battle with Stephen Hawking to Make the World Safe for Quantum Mechanics" Now that we have a theory of how information might be preserved in a black hole, I wonder how all the light that was trapped and couldn't escape wouldn't result in a brilliant cosmic flash when the black hole evaporates. Am I missing something?

how would i work out wingspan and suface area from a bodyweight?

How do physicists categorize forces such as coulombs, gravity, etc. that accumulate as the "group" of atoms increases (or density increases). Or is this just standard behavior of all forces (including strong, weak). Any thoughts? I guess it comes down to can strong and weak force exist outside of an atom's electron shell (edit: or proton, rather). Any ideas?

Most impractical however I wondered if plastic could be made from fish oil instead of under-sea oil?

would it be possible to make a lsaer with sodium chloride as the medium? if so would it be powerful?

Science is never about the WHY, but rather it is about the HOW. Philosophy is about the WHY. And maybe geometry is about the WHERE. I'm not yelling in caps, just highlighting. That's how science has always been far as I know. Unless by WHY you really mean HOW? It's potentially confusing. Such as, if the planet Mercury exploded, WHY is suddenly less of a philosophical question, and seeking to know the HOW pretty much becomes "why? what caused it?". But that's the public talking. In science, it's all about the HOW. And when scientists find out how Mercury exploded, the public will say "this is WHY it exploded".

If we can't really see an atom, but only infer its existence through interactions with other atoms (I'm refering mostly to scenarios where just a few single atoms are being experimented with), the logic there seems to resemble the properties of a circular argument. I'm definitely missing an important component of the process, so I ask: how can you see what atom A did to atom B if you can't see either of them, or other atoms it would affect? But -- the question above isn't the main reason for this post. So here we go. I've had a thought. The manner in which we view atoms is closely related to the how reality is viewed in Allegory of the Cave. Imagi…

Maybe Einstein is incorrect. If I had digital clocks,what then?

This question has been discussed in (Philosophy of Science) professional journals. It is part of a more general topic: the Nature of Physical Law. I'm using the lightbulb post-icon as a tag on this thread to indicate it has both general physics and philosophy content. Here is suggested reading if you want to respond---don't worry its very short and quick to read. This is a kind of thread prerequisite. Read this first before you post: http://www.thetroublewithphysics.com/timevarying06.ppt =========================== Those are the powerpoint slides from a talk. Very condensed. If your computer doesn't like the PPT file for some reason, let me know and I'l…

was watching tv about Einstein's curved spacetime and the experiments during eclipses. How do we know that spacetime is curved rather then simply light bending because of gravity? I think it's just another way of saying the same thing. Please explain.