Recent content by a dull boy

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    Undergrad Is the total amount of gravity in the Universe conserved?

    Is gravity conserved in the way that mass-energy is conserved? Did the early Universe have the same amount of gravity as it does today?
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    Undergrad Is the total amount of gravity in the Universe conserved?

    In thinking about force symmetry and conservation laws, I think I am right that the total amount of color charge and electric charge in the Universe is conserved, but is gravity conserved? does a Universe at maximum entropy have the same gravity as one say, just after the big bang? Thanks, Mark
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    Graduate Uncertainty Principle cause infinite wavefunction solutions?

    Please allow me one more follow-up - trying to discern superposition from the uncertainty principle. I understand I can't measure position and momentum simultaneously because they are conjugate variables. But what about spin and position, or spin and momentum? I bet you can't simultaneously...
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    Graduate Uncertainty Principle cause infinite wavefunction solutions?

    Yes! Thanks so much, I get it! Mark
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    Graduate Uncertainty Principle cause infinite wavefunction solutions?

    One more followup, I was speaking about stationary states, and my sense was that you got infinite solutions for a single particle speed/momentum...
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    Graduate Uncertainty Principle cause infinite wavefunction solutions?

    ...I think part of my confusion has to do with Einstein's comment that God does not play dice. I can see two source of this comment, the Uncertainty Principle and the infinite wavefunction solutions. For the latter, I thought there was only a single wavefunction solution for each principle...
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    Graduate Uncertainty Principle cause infinite wavefunction solutions?

    Dear Physics Forum, Is the Uncertainty Principle the cause of the infinite solutions to Schrödinger's equation? I get the sense it is not. Could you elaborate a little? Thanks, Mark
    • a dull boy
    • Thread
    • Cause Infinite Principle Uncertainty Uncertainty principle Wavefunction
    • Replies: 7
    • Forum: Quantum Physics
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    Graduate How can a tiny neutrino produce massive W+ and electron?

    Dear mfb and The Duck- Thanks very much for your answers - I understand! Mark
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    Graduate How can a tiny neutrino produce massive W+ and electron?

    A charged lepton can absorb a W+ boson and be converted into a neutrino, and visa versa. The neutrino has such small rest mass, how can it produce these large particles/be produced by them?
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    Graduate Virtual bosons and conservation of energy

    If the energy is transferred as momentum, wouldn't that make the virtual particle real? Meaning, if a virtual particle can exist only within the uncertainty principle, and before it disappears transfers momentum to a real particle, where does that momentum come from? I would think this could...
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    Graduate Virtual bosons and conservation of energy

    I read this on a website called Physics for Idiots "If an electron gets near another electron it emits a virtual photon which is absorbed by the second electron and let's it know it need to move away." If a virtual photon is absorbed, doesn't than make it real, and so break conservation...
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    Undergrad Slow roll inflation -layperson question

    Thank you very much, I understand this much better now.
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    Undergrad Slow roll inflation -layperson question

    Dear PF, I'm trying to understand slow roll inflation from a layperson view, and I think my current understanding is mistaken. If a bubble of matter is trapped in a local minimum PE state, and begins to roll down a hill to a lower PE state, it strikes me that bubble will expand in size the...
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    Graduate Does the electroweak force change quark flavor

    Dear Physics Forum, I was thinking about the properties of the combined electroweak force. Does it maintain the electromagnetic and weak force properties (in an additive fashion), or does it have new properties. If new properties, do we know what they are (well, you may, but I don't!)...
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    Graduate Do free electrons protons neutrons assemble into atoms?

    Thanks very much - the article on nucleosynthesis and the pressure dependence of nucleosynthesis were very helpful (after a few drinks!) Mark