Recent content by James50

tech99, as I see you are only describing the situation at point A (if air were present), where there are clearly defined electrodes acting almost as a point source of free charge (once the path is ionsed). Your description, I think, only applies for a time varying E field, not a traveling wave...

I think what you are asking, which may help answer your question, is: Has a photon at the front of a pulse of light ever traveled at a different velocity to one at the rear of the pulse? The fact they're in the same pulse doesn't really make a difference, so then perhaps an even more...

I avoided including frequencies, as I don't want to get bogged down in mathematics. However, let's say 3 cases: 10 Hz 100 KHz 10 GHz

I'm just trying to think of a qualititive solution to the following thought experiment: I have an RF source of very large voltage driving a signal towards point A (say, a capacitor or a dipole antenna). The source itself is not really part of this experiment, but I just want a sinusoidal...

Again, you are misunderstanding the point of Gaussian units.

I am not even sure what the question "Would EM radiation of frequency 50 Hz get absorbed by everything?" even means. There are many types of scattering, and there are many factors that determine how things scatter. You cannot generalise it by saying "higher frequencies scatter more" as that...

They are not only 'capable' of producing EM waves, they always will produce EM waves when accelerated. As I've said, a charge is a source of an electric field. When you accelerate that charge, the electric field must move with it in a radial fashion (regardless of frame of reference), creating a...

Your first paragraph is pretty sound, although the concept of 'pure energy' you are talking about is perhaps a little misguided - things (photons, matter, exchange bosons etc) can have energy, but can't really be described as pure energy. Energy is rather a measure of some quantity; although...

You can't break a proton up into its constituent components (quarks) like you are suggesting due to colour confinement of the quarks. Remember, energy and matter are very easily converted, so the concept of debris made of the 'old' matter isn't valid. It is like colliding two cars together, but...

The Z and W+/-, being of the weak interaction, have a smaller cross section than the electromagnetic interaction - so particle annhiliation then reproduction of the same particles are normally by a photon (it can, of course, be by the Z0, it's just that it happens far less often). However, the...

You are right and wrong - wrong to think that what you said is incorrect, but right to assume it would happen. Yes, all AC currents in normal wires produce EM radiation. However, at a frequency of 50Hz under a fairly low current, the energy propagated in the EM radiation isn't too great. How do...

Thanks! I saw some symbols hanging around in the latex reference things but then it messed up all my paragraphing! You're telling me! Nuclear physics and baryon decuplets I can do... But rotating bodies! A synoptic paper is a general one, it lasts for something like 4 hours and has...

A charge is effectively defined as a source of an electric field. If that source accelerates, then the electric field must move with it [although the movement can only propagate at the speed of light]. The derivation involves manipulating Maxwell's equations using vector identities into the form...

Nuclear fusion would practically impossible without a bit of quantum tunnelling!

The centre of mass is where the rod would balance perfectly on the point of a pin. To achieve this the torques on each side must be equal. Torque = Force x Distance. So the distance to one of the balls (from the centre of mass), multipled by that weight, must equal the distance to the other ball...