any physics buffs?

which book are you reading?

i love physics and took quantum mechanics for fun, but i dont recall any of that...

some other good physics books are:

a brief history of time (of course) and the dancing wu li masters. read them?
 
Lycan said:
You are lost and walking down a road. You want to get to town and know the road leads to town but
don't know which direction. You meet two twin boys. You know one boy always tells the truth and one
always lies. The boys know the direction to town. You cannot tell the boys apart and can only
ask one question to one boy to find the direction to town. What question should you ask?
Click to expand...

"Can I fly to town in this direction?"

If he answers yes (to you flying to town), then he is the liar, go the other way. If he answers no (to you flying to town), then he is the honest one, go the other way.
 
Jet Li said:
Just doing a little recreational reading and came across this really interesting piece on light. Funny,never even touched this stuff back in college. Have read many articles and books about quantum mechanics, particle physics, string, and brane theories, etc... but never seen this perspective......

Things can travel faster than light; and light doesn’t always travel very fast.

The speed of light in a vacuum is a constant: 300,000km a second. However, light does not always travel through a vacuum. In water, for example, photons travel at around three-quarters that speed.

In nuclear reactors, some particles are forced up to very high speeds, often within a fraction of the speed of light. If they are passing through an insulating medium that slows light down, they can actually travel faster than the light around them.

When this happens, they cause a blue glow, known as “Cherenkov radiation â€￾, which is (sort of) comparable to a sonic boom but with light. This is why nuclear reactors glow in the dark.

Incidentally, the slowest light has ever been recorded travelling was 17 meters per second – about 38 miles an hour – through rubidium cooled to almost absolute zero, when it forms a strange state of matter called a Bose-Einstein condensate.

Light has also been brought to a complete stop in the same fashion, but since that wasn't moving at all, we didn't feel we could describe that as "the slowest it has been recorded travelling".
Click to expand...

Love physics CONCEPTS but never had the interest in theoretical math that goes with it.

The variation of the speed of light sounds like it supports the particle/matter theory of light, which I never fully understood but always found interesting. If you can slow it down to 38 mph we may have a problem. :laugh:

The real question is, can we speed it UP? Perhaps...just put some in your pocket next time you take the Hayabusa to a track. :whistle:
 
My favorite subject! (went to college for it but no jobs so no career in science)

Keep in mind that when dealing with the speed of light, especially in Einstein's mass-energy equivalence, e=mc^2; c^2 = speed of light, in a vacuum. The fact that we can slow light down does not change this equation or the impact of it.

To respond to an earlier post, when light hits a wall it does "stop", it's absorbed. The energy is transferred into another form, heat. That's why when you put a black blanket on the ground in the middle of summer it gets very hot. It's absorbing the light energy. The same principle applies to a high-power laser. Concentrated delivery of heat to the target object. The energy emitted from the laser is never "stopped", just converted to heat.
 
busabeast said:
which book are you reading?

i love physics and took quantum mechanics for fun, but i dont recall any of that...

some other good physics books are:

a brief history of time (of course) and the dancing wu li masters. read them?
Click to expand...

Just looking at random physics obscurities online. Brief History of Time was great! And yeah, they teach all the hard stuff, but leave out all the really interesting things, like in certain situations,the speed of light is not the cosmic speed limit.
 
MelodicMetalGod said:
Love physics CONCEPTS but never had the interest in theoretical math that goes with it.

The variation of the speed of light sounds like it supports the particle/matter theory of light, which I never fully understood but always found interesting. If you can slow it down to 38 mph we may have a problem. :laugh:

The real question is, can we speed it UP? Perhaps...just put some in your pocket next time you take the Hayabusa to a track. :whistle:
Click to expand...

Check this out!!!!!

Science Blog -- Light that travels faster than light
 
PandaNin said:
My favorite subject! (went to college for it but no jobs so no career in science)

Keep in mind that when dealing with the speed of light, especially in Einstein's mass-energy equivalence, e=mc^2; c^2 = speed of light, in a vacuum. The fact that we can slow light down does not change this equation or the impact of it.

To respond to an earlier post, when light hits a wall it does "stop", it's absorbed. The energy is transferred into another form, heat. That's why when you put a black blanket on the ground in the middle of summer it gets very hot. It's absorbing the light energy. The same principle applies to a high-power laser. Concentrated delivery of heat to the target object. The energy emitted from the laser is never "stopped", just converted to heat.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I guess slowing light down would only decrease the amount of energy out, and if I rode my Busa like a cruiser, I would end up losing weight ie, mass!!!!:laugh: So no need to tweek the diet!
 
PaLVBusa said:
You want good reading on physics.. Read about Sound, more specifically Ultrasound and doppler effect.
Click to expand...

You have a specific book or study in mind?

i read a little bit on doppler as it was used in medicine (regular ultrasound, duplex doppler, color doppler in cardiology)

Guess I need to go back and just start with sound and build up from there!
 
PandaNin said:
To respond to an earlier post, when light hits a wall it does "stop", it's absorbed. The energy is transferred into another form, heat.
Click to expand...

I wrote this too early in the morning after I'd just woke up. I need to make a slight change.

SOME of the energy is bounced off the wall, that's why we see the wall, and subsequently, the color of the wall. Some of the energy is absorbed into the wall as heat. Not all like my previous statement infers.
 
"if I would ask the man standing next to you: which is the road to the village?, what would he answer?"

logic puzzles can frustrating
 
PandaNin said:
I wrote this too early in the morning after I'd just woke up. I need to make a slight change.

SOME of the energy is bounced off the wall, that's why we see the wall, and subsequently, the color of the wall. Some of the energy is absorbed into the wall as heat. Not all like my previous statement infers.
Click to expand...

No posting before your first cup of coffee anymore :laugh:
 
i vaugely recall an experiment in which a guy fires some electrons at a solid object and a hole in the object. the one fired at the solid part appears on the other side before the unobstructed one, and he concluded (somehow) that the particle traveled faster than light to get there... wish i could remember the guys name and where i saw it... its been awhile...
 
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