Physics

I was recently trying out a (very) small electrolysis experiment. It is literally a bottle cap with two nails inserted, connected to a 12v power supply. If I pour a bit of water into the experiment, it does what I expect. However, once I was feeling a bit lazy and couldn't bother to collect some water. So I decided to just spit into the experiment. And when I tried it, it started to produce this weird white liquid. A few seconds later, red blobs started appearing and it started to get harder. So my question is - what is this stuff? Is it splitting the elements of saliva like it does with water, or does the saliva somehow react weirdly to electricity?

So basically I signed up here just to get an answer on this question. Lets say we have a car, with a caravan attached to it. We have the choice to put a block of 500 kilograms in either the car or the caravan. It has to be placed in one of those. There's about 1 meter between the back of the car, and the start of the caravan. Is there any difference on the amount of resistance on the cars energy depending of what choice we picked and why? I hope you understand my question, else I will happily explain further.

In our solar system Mercury was once though to be tidally locked to the sun, now we know it rotates three times in two orbits of the sun. Is it probable that planets that are being discovered in close orbits of small stars but still in the life zone of that planet might do the same instead of being locked like the moon is to the earth?

I photograph birds as a casual hobby. Recently I upgraded from a camera with a 16x zoom to one with a 30x zoom. It is amazing because the camera viewfinder (when it decides to focus) acts like a binocular and through it I can see details of a bird's face from many yards away. One thing I have discovered is that, when I use the 30x zoom on flying hummingbirds, the wings are often visible in the pictures. I used to see photographs like this and I thought it must take some kind of special camera to freeze a hummingbird's wings, which are an invisible blur to the naked eye. But what is amazing is that when I look through the viewfinder, at 30x, the wings are visible! …

I have a random question, so what if you figured out a way to increase or decrease the number of gluons in a proton. Because gluons pull the quirks together, Would this have any offect or the proton and if so what would happen. My theory is that if your decreased the number of gluons in a proton than it would cause the proton to fall apart as radiation and if you increased the gluons than it would cause the proton to like fuse together or somthing. Also would there be a similar offect if you increased or decreased the number of mesons in a nuclious?

Hello everyone, Can anyone give an example of a lab experiment that takes place in CERN that would cause a wormhole? Its ok if its a little fictional. I just need a basic scenario. Thanks.

So there are plenty of resources around explaining why the sky is blue with Rayleigh scattering. Now according to this website, and others, one of the reasons the sea is blue is Raman scattering: But it fails to explain exactly why Raman scattering would produce a blue sea. As i understand it Rayleigh scattering predominates Raman scattering and would be sufficient to explain the blue sea. If anything, as anti-stokes scattering, which would shift towards the blue end of the spectrum, is rarer than stokes scattering, which shifts towards the red, wouldn't the overall Raman shift be towards the red end? I'd appreciate any pointers or useful resources to …

How that is Photons increase the mass of an object that absorbs it, if the photons have no mass? Since all reactions in Chemistry can always go 'both ways' and be reversed no matter how improbable the odds for one side of the reaction vs. the other, it seemed logical to me that if nature/chemistry is this way, perhaps mass to energy is this way as well? We know Mass converts to energy, how can we be certain that with enough energy under the right circumstances we might not be able to create mass from energy? m = E/c² How that is Photons increase the mass of an object that absorbs it, if the photons have no mass?----http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matter_creation-------

Hey Guys, so thanks to a great math teacher at my school, I know what i want to do with my life: I want to become a Physicist. He has gotten me madly in love with science and especially physics. And since summer is starting in a week for me, i'd like to do some 'physics stuff' I was originally going to buy a microscope of 1000x but i decided that since i am much more interested in physics, i would love to do some activity related to physics. If possible i would have tried to make a particle accelerator, but that's a dream, since i neither have the funds nor the genius mind of Michio Kaku. My greatest interest has been in theoretical physics specifically related to astroph…

Will ice made by D2O would float on H2O liquid. Why , why not

Does anyone knnow the answer to my topic title? thanks in advance Wouter g

Can someone elaborate about how and what a magnetic field line exists that is found in the empty space that surrounds a planet? I'm not talking about the ionized particles that flow along these magnetic field lines but rather the lines themselves. For example, for Earth, is the magnetic iron core somehow emitting electromagnetic photons from one pole which traverse to the other pole? Do magnetic field lines somehow influence the spacetime surrounding a planet such as Earth?

It seems that on a micro level most of what there is is empty space.** Again on the cosmic level we have space between bodies such as ,for example galaxies or solar systems. Is there any qualitative difference between these two kinds of spaces or is the "difference" merely explained by the relative size and location of these spaces? ** it is said that an atom is almost entirely "empty space" ,as an example.

The word I am looking for describes something like a void of light or a black hole. The only word I can come up with is Entropy, which doesn't seem to be it. Does anyone know of a similar sounding word I might be thinking of?

Hello, I have a bachelor degree in Electrical Engineering, and currently doing my masters in Computational Electromagnetics. I came to realize that my interest tends to be more on physics (or research career) rather than an engineering career. Are there possibilities to move from Engineering to applied physics when starting a PhD, or does that transition need to be made at masters level? Since in engineering, we tend to concentrate only on classical electromagnetics, I was wondering if it is possible to move to research on applications of quantum electrodynamics from an engineering background? Thank you very much. Regards

The Figure shows two insulated metal electrodes kept in pure water with a small gap between them. When sufficiently large Voltage pulses applied between electrodes, there is a flow of displacement current through the insulators and water, but will this split the water molecules? All your answers are welcomed !

When amplifying a sound wave, what does the current actually do to the wave to make it louder? As in, how do the electrons of the current actually interact with the audio wave mechanistically?

Ok I have a question, If you have 2 quantum entangled particles at a distance N away from each other and at each location you have 2 different measurement systems. One is named Alice and the other Bob. If Alice measures one of these 2 quantum entangled particles, causing a wave function collapse, will Bob measure that the particle has collapsed on an defined state or will he just see observe nothing but a random state.

first of all , once again i am sorry for posting this big picture .. please dont consider it as spam ... ??

So if you only ever reply to one of my threads, please make it this one! While some of these questions are more biology-oriented, the majority are about electromagnetism and thermodynamics; totally fine with this getting moved somewhere more suitable. I write fantasy, what with magic, dragon, spirits, and all, but I like at least the foundations of those things to be in the known physics of our world. Science is by no means my roof though. I'll probably fudge a lot of the math to make the story work; this isn't about whether magic or psychic abilities are real, it's just brainstorming about how they might work if they were possible. Any help would be appreciated! Ener…

Could quantum electrodynamics theory be wrong ? Everything about this theory does not fit into shape in my mind. I am no expert on the subject, but maybe a better theory for explaining electromagnetism needs to found. Or is it so well founded and proven ? For example virtual particles and them being only "in the math". I even read they can go back in time, this seems ridiculous. Also being able to attract particles by sending or "shooting" particles seems very odd to me, seems to defy logic. This also being just "in the math". Another thing is how photons themselves are the quanta of electromagnetic energy. Electromagnetism works very simply and elegantly, it is odd tha…

Hello, relatively quick question, could go under physics, math, or computer science but I put it here. I was just wondering if it is possible to create a Finite Difference Time Domain numerical simulation for sound waves similar to how it is possible to do it for electromagnetic waves. Has anyone ever done this before? I've looked around but cant seem to find anything. Does anyone know of any good sources to learn more about this if it has been done? Like papers, or books on acoustic design or something.

How does the sending of particles by particles attract other particles ? For example electrons sending photons or virtual photons to a proton, or quarks sending gluons to each other.

How can we detect photons without mass ? In the experiment that was showing two photons hitting the detector when only 1 was fired through the slit, how did technology detect photons without mass to hit the detector ?

Carriers of forces are generally called virtual particles, a very confusing term. I think this term should be abandoned, in favor of the term "carriers of the force" or .. something better. These are not particles at all, but are quanta of the force in question. Basically forces break up into quanta, just like electromagnetic energy, they are also a type of energy. The term "virtual photons" is even more confusing, leading you to think these are some kind of photon, when it isn't. It should be clear that not everything is a particle, and so also their names should be in accordance. Even the photon isn't a particle, but a quanta of electromagnetic energy. Maybe a new term …