What is Neutral: Definition and 350 Discussions

A neutral country is a state that is neutral towards belligerents in a specific war or holds itself as permanently neutral in all future conflicts (including avoiding entering into military alliances such as NATO). As a type of non-combatant status, nationals of neutral countries enjoy protection under the law of war from belligerent actions to a greater extent than other non-combatants such as enemy civilians and prisoners of war.
Different countries interpret their neutrality differently: some, such as Costa Rica, have demilitarized, while Switzerland holds to "armed neutrality" to deter aggression with a sizeable military while barring itself from foreign deployment. However, not all neutral countries avoid any foreign deployment or alliances, as Austria, Ireland, Finland and Sweden have active UN peacekeeping forces and a political alliance within the European Union. The traditional Swedish policy is not to participate in military alliances, with the intention of staying neutral in the case of war. Immediately before World War II, the Nordic countries stated their neutrality, but Sweden changed its position to that of non-belligerent at the start of the Winter War.
There have been considerable changes to the interpretation of neutral conduct over the past centuries. During the Cold War another European country, Yugoslavia, claimed military and ideological neutrality, and that is continued by its successor, Serbia.

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  1. T

    Neutral conductor has a hollow cavity within it

    Homework Statement a neutral conductor has a hollow cavity within it. When a point charge q = +6.3 nC is placed into this cavity How much charge will be found on each surface of the conductor? inner: -6.3 nC (negative charge being attracted by the positive charge that being put in the...
  2. E

    Shared Neutral Between Distribution and Split Phase

    Greetings everyone. I do not have an extensive background in Power. I've recently been brushing up on topics from undergrad related to power distribution and residential wiring in general. I understand that in general, houses in the US are fed a three wire, split-phase 240V power from the...
  3. C

    What is the net charge and why does it matter?

    What is electric charge? Electric charge is the physical property of matter that causes it to experience a force when close to other electrically charged matter. So, if the particle has electric charge, there is an electric field around it. What is a Neutral particle? In...
  4. T

    Particle Physics - decay of a neutral pion

    Particle Physics -- decay of a neutral pion Homework Statement Consider the decay of a neutral pion that has a momentum of 10 GeV/c into two photons. What is the minimum energy that a photon from this decay can have? In terms of the pion mass and pion momentum. What about Maximum Energy...
  5. T

    Neutral atom and a point charge

    Homework Statement If the distance between a neutral atom and a point charge is doubled, by what factor does the force on the atom by the point charge change? (new force / old force) 2. The attempt at a solution Wouldn't the answer just be (new force / old force) = 0 since there is no...
  6. G

    Does Depth Affect the Hovering of a Neutrally Buoyant Object?

    I believe that I am making this a bit harder than it should be. An object is weighted so that it "hoovers" 5 feet underwater. It is neutrally buoyant. A diver drags the object even deeper without adding weight, she releases the object at a deepth of 100ft. Will the object stay put, rise up...
  7. S

    Probability of a spin flip transition in neutral hydrogen

    Homework Statement I'd like to calculate the probability of a spin flip transition occurring in the ground state of neutral hydrogen. That is, the transition from parallel to anti-parallel spin configuration of the electron and proton. This transition produces the 21-cm line. Homework...
  8. B

    Earth wire and Neutral wire are swapped. Can appliance work?

    Homework Statement If we connect the neutral and Earth wires wrongly in the plug, can the appliance still work? Homework Equations The Attempt at a Solution I am not too sure, but my answer is probably no. The circuit cannot be completed, as the current will flow to the ground...
  9. D

    What Is the Best Method to Find the Neutral Point in Glider Models?

    hey, i am working on a hand launched glider model..can anyone guide me how to find the neutral point, i used some simple online calculators but it is not considering some important variables..suggest me a reliable method guys...
  10. websterling

    What is the meaning behind the quark content of the neutral pion?

    The quark content of the neutral pion is listed as \frac{u\overline{u}-d\overline{d}}{\sqrt{2}} What is the proper way to interpret this?
  11. C

    Understanding Neutral Circuits: Loads & Current Flow

    In a single circuit I've always understood that a neutral was a return essentially completing the circuit for the current to flow but I know that losing a neutral can cause imbalanced load and burn up equipment, my question is, how is this possible? If I were to open the hot, it would simply...
  12. F

    Home AC supply - why live, neutral and ground needed?

    I have checked How Stuff Work, About.com, Ask.com, Google and even asked an electrical engineer and found no satisfying answer to the following questions: For household AC current, why do we need 2 live, a neutral and a ground 4-wire connection? We get 3 wires from the street transformer where...
  13. N

    Why amino acids as Zwitterons in solid state and ph neutral?

    Hi forum goersI'm reviewing some coursework for my General Chemistry class and cannot seem to find a reasonable explanation of why amino acids exist as zwitterons in solid state and ph7 solutions. I'm fairly certain the explanation has to do with its solubility in water, but I am not sure. Here...
  14. C

    Can we use earth as neutral?

    In a power station, the transformer's neutral wire is the same which is connected to earth. My question is if the neutral and the Earth is basically the same wire, can we use the Earth as our neutral point? i mean will it be a closed circuit where current will flow if we connect our neutral wire...
  15. N

    Electron flow in live and neutral wires

    Our Physics teacher used to tell us that in an ac circuit the current and hence the flow of electrons is reversed every half cycle as the polarity of the supply changes every half cycle. However I am still puzzled about the following. In the UK, the live is the wire that delivers electrical...
  16. H

    How can an extrinsic semiconductor still be electrically neutral?

    Homework Statement Explain why a pure semiconductor crystal will always have equal numbers of electrons and holes present as electrical carriers. Explain why a crystal with additional donor impurities will norally have more electrons in the conduction band than holes in the valence band, still...
  17. R

    Alternating Current: neutral & ground

    I'm having a difficult time understanding precisely how alternating current works in relationship to ground (earth). I have spent hours trying to learn online and I get conflicting explanations. So let's start with a power plant. A coil of wire is rotated in between magnets, inducing a...
  18. K

    Properties of neutral charges?

    Three objects (A, B, and C) are brought close to each other one at a time. A and B attract, but B and C repel. Simple true/false question involving "is this one positive/negative/etc." What I'm unsure about is whether or not A could possibly be neutral, or more specifically, is there any way to...
  19. N

    Questions about electrically neutral atoms

    Hi, everybody. I wanted to ask you about the question that really tortured me for quite a long time: Does electrically neutral atom have energy above 0? I mean what would happen if you have measuring instruments and they tell you energy is 0, but the energy of atom is still there-potential...
  20. M

    AC Electric Neutral Current Flow

    AC Electric Neutral Current "Flow" Hi everyone Can someone point me in the right direction here please. Happy to do the digging, but so far I can't find anything that helps! In an AC alternating-current electrical circuit, the Neutral wire is ultimately connected to "mother earth" / "big...
  21. B

    Neutral pion decay: JPC conservation

    \pi^0s decay to two photons via the EM interaction. The J^{PC} of the pion is 0^{-+} and of a \gamma is 1^{--}. \gamma\gamma therefore has J^{PC} = 0^{++}, 1^{-+}, 2^{++}. This does not match the pion, so how can this decay occur?
  22. S

    Can a neutral atom be affected by magnetic field?

    If we have a moving, neutral atom, say hydrogen, will it react to a magnetic field? If yes, why? If you ask why not, I argue that the atom as a whole is a chargeless entity.
  23. M

    What happens when a neutral pion decays?

    The neutral phi meson decays to make two photons after around 8 x10-17 seconds Is this just straight annihilation of the quark anti quark pair? If it is this does it take this amount of time due the quark colour, as in do you need a red up and a red anti up for annihilation? Or does this...
  24. B

    Calculate Phase Voltage On Unbalanced Load if Neutral Disconnected

    Homework Statement An Unbalanced 3-phase star connected load has the details as below. Line Voltage=400V Voltage R-N = 230V 0° Voltage B-N = 230V +120° Voltage W-N= 230V -120° Impedance R-N = 100+J36 Impedance B-N = 102+J0 Impedance W-N = 50+J0 A.) Determine the neutral...
  25. A

    Neutral pion 2 gamma decay question

    I've been reading some books on how neutral pion decay proceeds through chiral anomaly recently. What I found wired is people always use the matrix element of the axial current between vacuum and a pion as granted, saying the matrix element should be a vector and the pion momentum is the only...
  26. P

    Is there such a thing as a neutral hole?

    Most explanations of doping, coupled with the simple definition of hole as positive charge carrier, and reinforced by classic graphic illustrations of P- and N-doped regions full of little plus and minus signs respectively, makes for a common point of confusion when learning basic semiconductor...
  27. V

    Calculate the angle of the neutral axis from the x-axis

    Homework Statement Calculate the angle of the neutral axis from the x-axis when the beam is loaded with a positive couple of 6kNm acting around the X-axis Homework Equations i have calculated: Ixx: 2854758.6 mm^4 Iyy: 1429034.6 mm^4 Ixy: -1143476 mm^4 The Attempt at a Solution...
  28. S

    Neutral pseudo meson decay into neutrino antineutrino

    what are standards model limits on decay of K0, Do, B0 meson into a pair of neutrino and anti neutrino. I know that these highly suppressed due to involve FCNC. but if someone can tell me about theoretical limits on these reactions.
  29. D

    Understanding Neutral Pions: Superpositions, Particles, & Feynman Diagrams

    So apparently a neutral pion is a superposition of u\bar{u} and d\bar{d}. I'm having trouble understanding what this means. I have no problem understanding how the decay products of some scattering experiment could be a superposition of these two states, but how can we treat this superposition...
  30. C

    Open problem of classical representation of neutral antimatter bodies?

    Can anybody please tell me how to represent a neutral antimatter body such as a planet or a star in the classical formulation of special and general relativities? Thanks.
  31. S

    Difference between neutral and ground wire

    in household supply, one wire is neutral wire and another is ground. Both are at 0 potential. My question is that can we interchange both wire. I mean use live wire with ground?
  32. F

    Neutral wire position - Distribution system

    looking for standards & guidelines on Neutral Wire for distribution system, especially Neutral Up or Neutral High (neutral on top of the phase conductors), advantages & dis-advantages of it.
  33. R

    How can I troubleshoot motor burnout caused by a missing neutral bridge?

    Hi, We installed a chiller unit that had a working compressor. We turned it on, but nothing worked, after some fault finding, we found in the main panel, also newly installed, the neutral bridge was missing. This created problems as the neutrals on the chiller then created false highs on...
  34. R

    Why p type semiconductor is electrically neutral

    why p type semiconductor is electrically neutral and what is the concept of drift current?
  35. J

    Why don't I get shocks on neutral wire?

    Why don't I get shocks on neutral wire? In my textbook the AC current is defined to be one which changes its direction periodically. So according to the text both the wires of the AC supply should give you shock, but I felt the real shock when I observed that the neutral wiring didn't shook...
  36. S

    Static vs. Neutral Equilibrium of a Mesh

    Suppose a square metal mesh sheet is hung off-center from a string and you are charged with the task of hanging various weights so that the mesh will be in static equilibrium, roughly horizontal. Why is it that this task must be done with masses that can exert torques large enough to flex the...
  37. K

    D Meson Decay: Neutral D-Meson Branching Ratios

    Hi all, I have a question regarding to the branching ratio of neutral D-meson decay. Give three decays: 1. D --> negative kaon + positive pion 2. D --> positive pion + negative pion 3. D --> positive kaon + negative pion The one with highest branching ratio is 1. due to its non-cross...
  38. K

    Exploring the Spin of Neutral Pions in High Energy Physics

    In Perkins's Introduction to High Energy Physics, the author obtained the spin of neutral pions from the decay \pi^0 → 2\gamma He argued that the z-component of the total photon spin in the above decay can have the value S_z=0 or 2. If s_\pi=1, then only S_z=0 is possible, and the two-photon...
  39. C

    Percentage of neutral pions created

    When bombarding a target with a high energy proton beam, of the pions produced, what determines the percentage of them that are neutral?
  40. bcrowell

    Gauge invariance requires gauge bosons, why not for neutral fermions?

    My understanding is that for electrons, there is a standard argument that the electromagnetic interaction between them is required, not optional. Since they're identical particles, we should be able to take the wavefunction of two electrons and mix up their identities by any amount we like, and...
  41. EVriderDK

    Unbalanced three-phase w. neutral. Finding currents

    Homework Statement I have to find the currents in the three phases and the neutral. I understand that it has got something to do with Kirchoffs law, but how on earth? I can simulate it in multisim, and i get the right results for I_rms but i cannot figure out how to calculate. N->L...
  42. T

    AC Circuits: Voltage Changes and Neutral Becoming Live?

    I was just reviewing AC circuits and the diagram shows that the voltage changes in AC, it goes up and down and on the diagram is shows the current goes one way then the other. But in AC, does the neutral become live? I thought the red was always the live wire! but according to the diagram...
  43. B

    Why is There Only One Neutral Pion?

    Why is there only one neutral pion? Shouldn't there be two of them with slightly different masses, one with u/u-bar quarks, and one with d/d-bar quarks? Do neutral pions "oscillate" in some way? After all, s/s-bar mesons, c/c-bar mesons, and b/b-bar mesons are all different.
  44. I

    Phase to Phase vs Phase to Neutral

    Is there any difference? I have been thinking about this to the point of confusion. Basically I have a delta 120/208 3 phase service at the shop and we work at a place with 277/480 a lot. I have a test box to connect motors and such and it's crude at best having just a breaker and motor...
  45. W

    Weak + and - and Z neutral, free neutron, etc.

    With beta decay a down quark turns into a up quark + W- results in e- and (anti-neutrino) and up quark turns into a down quark + W+ produces e+ + (neutrino), does the W- and W+ get emitted and then turn into e- + (anti-neutrino) or e+ + (neutrino) or do they stay in the nucleus? How does the Z...
  46. lpetrich

    Why is the Universe electrically neutral?

    That's a conundrum that I've seen posed -- certain people have claimed that it's very improbable. But here is what I think is a plausible solution. If the Universe originated from a quantum fluctuation or something similar, it would have to have originated as a gauge singlet. Being a gauge...
  47. J

    Is neutral nitrogen the same as N2 (nitrogen gas)?

    I've read a lot of articles about neutral nitrogen and its properties, but I was wondering if it was or has the same properties as nitrogen gas, N2? Like in regards to its emission/absorbtion spectrum, is it the same as the emission spectrum of N2 gas? thanks
  48. H

    3 phase (Neutral) Transformer

    Hi We have a project where we have to install an HVAC system but only a 3-phase supply is available. While that is fine for the motors inside the unit, it means that there is no neutral available for the control circuitry. I am aware that a "zig-zag" isolating transformer can provide a...
  49. T

    Non-standard Beam Bending Question - Parallel to Neutral Axis

    Hi there, first post on these forums. I have a seemingly simply question about beam bending. We (mechanical engineers) are all very familiar with the standard beam bending scenario. The beams are always shown being loaded perpendicular to the neutral axis, regardless of the type of support...
  50. C

    Can Z decay into a neutral pion?

    I wondered if the following decay was possible: \Xi^0 \to \Lambda + \pi^0 The only mechanism I can think of is that a strange quark of the Lambda particle emits a Z and becomes a down quark followed by the Z creating a up-antiup pair. But I'm not sure whether the strange to up transition (by...
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