Recent content by PurelyPhysical

I'm trying to get a handle on what magnetism really is. I know that charge in motion generates a magnetic field. I know that objects and particles can be permanent magnets when the magnetic fields of their elementary particles "line up." But how do stationary elementary particles have the own...

This does help, thank you very much :D

Homework Statement Eliminate t from the equation (x-xi)=vi(t)+1/2(a)t^2 using the kinematic equation v=vi+at to get v^2=vi^2+2a(x-xi) The Attempt at a Solution I wind up with (x-xi)=vi(v-vi/a) + 1/2(v^2-vi^2/a). If the first term on the right side didn't exist, I could see what the solution...

I see it now. What I didn't realize is that all of the y vectors are positive because the third vector points away from the positive charge. Thank you.

Why are there two distances 2 and 1? Isn't the center point equally distant from all the other points? edit: I wrote down the electric field. I see now where the constants in front of the cos are coming from. But is there a sign error for the constants in front of sin?

Homework Statement http://imgur.com/48cLE6q Homework Equations Coulomb's law The Attempt at a Solution I can follow most of this problem, but I am unsure where the constants in front of the trig functions are coming from. Why is it 2cos(135), 1cos(45), 2cos(-45), etc?

Thank you very much! This clears it up for me. It never occurred to me to look at ratios that way. Is there a name for what this particular concept is in math?

Homework Statement http://imgur.com/UsKsaOn Homework Equations Why is the answer in joules multiplied by 2/3 and 1/2? I can follow the rest of the problem. The Attempt at a Solution [/B] I get the same solution as my teacher if I use the constants 2/3 and 1/2. I just don't understand where...

http://imgur.com/48cLE6q I can't follow this. Did my teacher make a mistake? Why are all the charges 2?

Thank you. That makes a lot of sense.

Why are the units of force used when applying coulombs law (N-M^2)/(C^2)? This is actually a three part question. 1. Why are the units of the permitivity constant (C^2)/(N-M^2)? 2. Why do Q1 and Q2 not contribute to the final units? Each charge is measured in coulombs, but those units don't...

Thank you, that makes sense. I was trying to imagine the particles in the dipole as protons and electrons, being the smallest postive and negative charges I could think of. I had to let go of that idea for this to make sense. Thanks again.

This is what I am referring to. How is it possible for dipoles to exist at the microscopic level, without them simply becoming a hydrogen atom?

I'm not the one that can benefit from this information. Sure, speaking in absolutes, there usually winds up being a contradiction, or untruth, in certain particular cases. Feel free to expound on those particular cases for Einstein's cat.

I am referring to microscopic dipoles. I know from chemistry what electron affinity is, and that Oxygen has a higher electron affinity than Hydrogen. So, the particles of the dipole would be oxygen and hydrogen respectively? But then we are considering atoms of different elements as particles of...