Classical Physics

Is there any type of cell or material that when alpha or beta or gamma rays strike it produces an electrical current directly ?

Everybody has asked the question of what would happen if you were to drill a hole directly through the centre of the Earth and I find the answers fascinating, if not plausible. But this isn't about a hole directly through the centre of the Earth. I'm curious to know what the effects of a long tunnel from maybe one side of a contenent to another (lets say Russia as that covers a large portion of Earths landmass) I know that an in antipodal tunnel it's likely that you'd experience weightlessness but how would one perceive a perfectly straigth tunnel that didn't intersect Earths core? I beleive that even though the tunnel would be straight one would experience it as…

Check this video out on YouTube I just came across today. This looks real, but then again, I'm a "casual" physicist. Lets say this is legit, what would be the EM version of this device? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmtWcmm2Wgw&feature=related As you can see in the video, the boat moves in the water with just the device that is enclosed in a box to prevent claims of it moving air. Either the device is working or someone is blowing really hard on the boat to make it move. I tried to look up more information on the inventor, Roy Thornsen, to no avail. I tried to look on on Google or Wikipedia and still got squat. I'm gonna rip this video from YouTube just…

Hi all, This is my first post. I'm a 56 year old guy (not a student) and I don't know how to apply the f=ma formula to solve this question. If a 10-pound bowling ball is sitting on a scale at sea level it would weigh ten pounds. What if that same bowling ball were dropped from a height of 13 feet onto the scale? If it were a bathroom scale it would probably crush it, but if the scale were strong enough, what weight would the scale show if it were able to adjust instantly to the ball hitting it? I'm assuming no wind resistance so the ball is dropping at 9.8 meters/second squared. Could you demonstrate how you came up with the answer too? Thanks! Chris Mohr Ca…

hello everyone , I'm new to the forum. and I have a theory of a new type of propulsion for space travel. consider a rail gun that fires a 100 kg mass along a 500 meter rail. then the mass enters a turnaround at the end of the 500 meter rail. having accelerated the 500 meters , it will present a force to the turnaround. the mass turns 180 degrees through the turnaround and begins traveling the opposite direction and free floats in zero g for 500 meters in the opposite direction. it then enters a second 180 degree turnaround and presents a force to the second turnaround. the mass turns 180 degrees again in the second turnaround and now enters the rail…

new here, have some ideas to share. im thinking if we instead of shooting a solid projectile, is it possible to have a "pod" or some time of object that has it own power source, like a battery built on. and it creates its magnetic field, which would in turn launch faster and repel against the railgun thus causing it to go faster. is that even possible? i also think the problem with the railguns projectile falling apart or disenergrating into thin air would be prevented by the "pods" new magnetic field.? again.. im new. so what do you think... ??!

Is it possible to test the sonofusion with the deuterium-tritium reaction? The research on sonofusion tries to obtain nuclear fusion in deuterated liquids. In a typical experiment of sonofusion, a beam of neutrons generates tiny bubbles in the liquid. An ultrasound field expands and contracts these bubbles. The nuclear fusion could occur when the collapse of bubbles is sufficiently fast to generate an intense shock wave. The last experiment of Rusi Taleyarkhan and his team has demonstrated the emission of neutrons in deuterated acetone. However the signs of reaction in this experiment were very feeble. With deuterated products, the possible reactions are: D + D &…

so i "heavily" researched the subject a bit, these forums were a valuable source of input, so i'm thinking of sharing some of the cool things i found:-) a nice round up of the demons of classical physics, one of which reversed entropy for some decades, before having his dirty trick exposed, as explained here in a more open minded article of entropy. here are some Briar patches for FAQs about entropy(only in the beginning, the rest is more boringly detailed). here is a mod in some space junkies forum smashing light bulbs as they turn on over newbies' heads before they give birth to the ingenuous discovery of using thermo couples to bypass entropy and "get rid…

If you are spinning a circle made of paper, we know that the area near the edge is moving faster than the area near the centre. Does that mean that with a large enough circle, you could make the edge go faster than light??

I was just having a think, and wanted to know if there was a place on earth, where the gravitational field strength: g = 9.81 m/s2 = 32.2 ft/s2 (standard) is stronger than elsewhere. I thought that the equator, or the magnetic poles may be candidates for this trail of thought. Would love your input, doc

entropy is chaos, disorder. in a closed system, entropy should remain the same or increase. if we take the universe as our closed system, entropy should be the same or increasing... however, entropy on earth has decreased by the evolution of living organisms. that should be balanced off by more disorder in other parts of the closed system, i.e, the universe. have such decrease in order been observed? any theories?

Hi I’m student at a french university, I have to present a project about swimsuit and I must carry out experiments. I’ve decided to work on the buoyancy of swimsuits, the flow around it and drag. To measure drag, I think I’ll drop a heavy ball wrapped in swimsuit material in the water and take measures. Then I’ll do the same with just the ball and compare the results. But I have a problem concerning the flow. I’ve read from a swimsuit manufacturer website that swimsuits help create laminar flow. And that’s what I don’t understand: Why ? And how can I prove it in an experiment ? I know it’s all about fluid mechanics but I haven’t studied that yet. Thank you so…

I've been working on a project that I posted on here a while ago. I was looking at using resistance wire to make a heated stirring attachment. I am now ready to build a tester to try out my theory. Using W=V2/R I worked out that using 230v I would need 6.3 ohm/metre to achieve my 100 watt target based on the total length of the wire needed. However, I found examples of this equation being used accurately with DC electrics. Would the resistance wire behave the same with AC ? If not, then how do I work out this equation using AC? Any thoughts would help on this...................... Thankyou in advance!

Hi, I have never taken physics, i am in high school, but i had a little theory i was hoping you guys could comment on. I was thinking that the earth's gravity would be a lot greater if the moon and sun didn't exist. This is because the moon's gravity, is taking away from the Earths, and the earths from the moons. i know occording to what they teach you this isnt true, but i just want you to think about ity for a second and get back to me. i really appreciate it. And i tried calculations and found that there is a loss of .13m/s squared between the earth and moon due to interfering gravity. unfortunately, im almost positive my math is slightly off. try it yourself and se…

Why, when I turn the lights off, the photons don't keep bouncing off the walls and keep the room illuminated? Margui

Gallium is a one of the few metals that melts near body temperature, its melting point is about 30 C. The latent heat of fusion gallium is 80.4kj/kg. Calculate how much heat is required to melt 150.0g of gallium.(12.1kJ) My answer to this solution is 4337 J/kg. Am i correct? Please explain if you can. Thank you Merged post follows: Consecutive posts mergedSolved, above answer is wrong. Close Thread.

it is interesting i could not find many particle-particle simulators that simulate electrical fields even thought dynamics is pretty similar to that of planetary orbitals. there are few i could find but they are mostly 2D and defining problem in mathematical/geometrical terms, with sin/cos or some harmonic oscillator functions. none, however, i could find that simulate CLASSICAL ELECTRODYNAMICS (Stochastic El.Dynm. - SED) in 3D n-body system and even less to include MAGNETIC FIELDS, which are the effect of moving electric fields, says Lorentz and friends... this is kind of situation and type of particles i want to simulate: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magneti…

Yeah, it's an ad, but damn that is too cool to miss: dLymisVND-4 Physics is in everything, eh? but anyways, just a thought - if they were to attempt the shot from higher altitude, they'd probably have to calculate for the wind and friction. I just thought it's a cool video to see, and discuss. ~moo

from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equivalence_principle#Development_of_gravitation_theory The equivalence principle proper was introduced by Albert Einstein in 1907, when he observed that the acceleration of bodies towards the center of the Earth at a rate of 1g (g = 9.81 m/s2 being a standard reference of gravitational acceleration at the Earth's surface) is equivalent to the acceleration of an inertially moving body that would be observed on a rocket in free space being accelerated at a rate of 1g. Einstein stated it thus: "we [...] assume the complete physical equivalence of a gravitational field and a corresponding acceleration of the reference system." (Einst…

I know that half life is the time period for half the radioactive nuclei to decay. That if the half life of carbon 13 is 1000years... in a thousand years you'll have half the amount of carbon 13 as you did when you started. These are the sorts of explanations I can find but I would like to know what is actually happening. If I have one carbon 13 atom, do I end up with half the atom? Does it eventually disappear? What exactly is "radioactive decay"?

Can anyone see the advantages of making use of the information contained in this patent. It seems industry has been old school thinking forever. In my research for this patent, I made use of steam tables that were generated in the early years of the last century. The same tables are being cited in todays textbooks and writings. The problems started when examining the information derived from the tables. Professors and others quoting them made assumptions that I believe were not correct, and then expounded on ways and methods, with elaborate diagrams and charts, to show how to interpret and correct the real world applications of this information. For instance, …

Besides gases and thermonuclear reactions, does the sun ever have fire on it? A related question: if the Earth's atmosphere didn't have oxygen -- say it was a mixture composed solely of hydrogen, nitrogen, and other gases -- can a normal fire still be lit if there were enough hydrogen in our atmosphere? I'm thinking since either oxygen or hydrogen alone is flammable and/or can be highly explosive, it stands to reason you can produce a flame with either. Therefore on the sun also, I must wonder if the hydrogen that's not yet fusing -- the part of it nearer the surface -- would burst into flame due to the heat generated by the already fusing hydrogen occurring nearer t…

I've noticed that when I first turn on the flame under a cool pot the sides immediately mist with condensation. Why?

Hi. I have this nagging issue with people's physics in all kinds of movies and shows and even on the street in which they claim that if you have a frontal collision between two cars, the speeds add up. Basically, there's car A, going 100m/s that way --> and car B, going 100m/s that way <--. Frontal ideal collision. I hear people say that it's worse than hitting a wall (ideal, concrete, immovable wall), because the speeds add up, essentially people actually smash at 200m/s. I think they're nuts. My problem with this is: Car a is in a crash. Essentially, all its energy is converted into molten crash juice (deformation, mostly), equal to speed differenc…

Why is the speed of light the speed that it is? What is the limiting factor involved?