Recent content by Breedlove

Homework Statement Light from a laboratory sodium lamp has two strong yellow components at 589.5923 nm and 588.9953 nm. How far apart in the first-order spectrum will these two lines be on a screen 1.00 m from a grating having 10,000 lines per centimeter? Homework Equations Grating...

Okay, how come the search stinks so much? Like I put in what I want and I never get results that are closely related to what I searched, I'm guessing because the keywords I'm using are being searched for independently of one another, so if I say "polarization states" then anything with the word...

Homework Statement I'm using Eugene Hecht's 4th edition of Optics, doing problems from chapter 8 on polarization. Write an expression for a polarization-state lightwave of angular frequency (omega) and amplitude E propagating along the x-axis with its plane of vibration at an angle of 25...

Wow. Okay so I did it and got 1/15 for k and got the right answer, but am still a bit clueless as to why that works. Are we saying that u,v, and w equal 1 and saying that each term equals zero? From my understanding of linear (in)dependence a set of vectors is linearly independent if the only...

Homework Statement Let u,v,w be three linearly independent vectors in ℝ7. Determine a value of k, k= , so that the set S={u-3v,v-5w,w-ku} is linearly dependent. Homework Equations The Attempt at a Solution I don't really know why knowing that we're in ℝ7 will help. I know a...

Homework Statement This question is question 5 from chapter 4 of Hecht's Optics, 4th edition. I found a pdf of the homework set, and the question is labeled as 4.5. http://www.physics.byu.edu/faculty/hess/471W09/Homework/Ch4.pdf" Homework Equations Not completely sure The...

Nope, it's just pi. Thank you so much! I didn't know what k equaled. Thanksthanksthanks.

Homework Statement A plane, harmonic, linearly polarized light wave has an electric field intensity given by {E}_z = {E}_0 cos pi*10^{15}*(t - x/.65c) while traveling in a piece of glass. Find (a) The frequency of the light. (b) Its wavelength. (c) The index of refraction of the...

Homework Statement A mass of 1 slug is suspended from a spring whose spring constant is 9 lb/ft. The mass is initially released from a point 1 foot above the equilibrium position with an upward velocity of \sqrt{3} ft/s. Find the times at which the mass is heading downward at a velocity of 3...

Homework Statement I want to try to find the scale height of a planet using H=kT/Mg, where H is the scale height, k is the Boltzman constant, T is the surface temperature, g is the acceleration of gravity, and M is the mean molecular mass. I am having a great deal of trouble understanding...

Homework Statement Assume that when the curve C shown below is revolved about the x-axis, it generates a surface of revolution with the property that all light rays L parallel to the x-axis striking the surface are reflected to a single point O (the origin). Use the fact that the angle of...

I am curious, partly because of a test tomorrow, about the difference between peculiar and irregular galaxies. Pretty much my current understanding is that peculiar galaxies are formed from gravitational interactions between/among galaxies, and irregular galaxies are just different. From the...

Homework Statement Find the work doneby the force field F on a particle that moves along the curve C. F(x,y)=xy i + x^2j C: x=y^2 from (0,0) to (1,1) Homework Equations \intF dot dr=\int^{b}_{a}F(r(t))dotr'(t)dt The Attempt at a Solution Okay, so I parametrized x=t and y=t^2...

Finally! Excellent. So... how would I go about parametrizing the curve y=sin(pi(x)/2)? I'm thinking that if the parabola is just x=t and y=t^2, then maybe we can just say x=t in this case too?

Bah! Yeah I misunderstood my handwriting. I thought my two was a five. Okay. But for the second one I still get an integrand of 5t+t^2