Recent content by bwana

In most experiments of SR, we look at atomic and subatomic particles or the frequency of EM radiation. The Haefele-Keating experiment looked at the resonance of cesium atoms stimulated by a certain EM frequency https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hafele–Keating_experiment The Ives-Stillwell...

So many answers. some seem circular, some shed light. Ibix said "They can't be in different places because you would need two clocks, one at the emitter and one at the detector, and how do you know the clocks are zeroed correctly?" My rebuttal →the passenger is holding a stopwatch-it clicks...

Thank you all for your replies. Yes, the details make all the difference. It is the observer who makes the calculation. He can measure the time it takes for the train to go from a to b and he can also measure the time it takes for light to go from a to b because he has a good stopwatch. He can...

One of my first exposures to special relativity was looking at a 'light clock' where a photon is emitted and captured by a detector whilst traveling on a train. The passenger sees the photon go straight up. The distance traveled by this photon in a given time, t, is c t An observer however...

I read the Wiki page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electron_cyclotron_resonance as well as this answer here How does a cyclotron work? and it describes a setup where one has a cyclotron which has a static magnetic field pointing up through the dees and there is an alternating high voltage...

thank you ibix. you get where I'm going with this. the fundamental conundrum that bothers me is the following: consider an elevator at rest on the ground ( in a gravity well) compared to another at rest in deep space. We can calculate how much slower the a clock in the elevator on Earth ticks...

Differentiating the Lorentz transformation would let me calculate the time dilation occurring in an accelerating frame. Another formula also let's me calculate time dilation in a gravitationally accelerated frame - the Schwarzschild equation. The equivalence principle says these two...

The term "Lorentz transformations" only refers to transformations between inertial frames. However, if we differentiate velocity with respect to time, we obtain acceleration. The Lorentz factor says: t(0 reference frame observer at rest) / t(moving) = 1 / Sqrt[1–(v/c)^2] t0 / tm =...

Drakkith: thank you. I had no idea there are so many mechanisms. That explains a lot for me. Where can I read more about this? Physics texts are usually abstract and focus on equations rather than the process of discovery. I’d like to know how these mechanisms were identified, which energy...

Think of voltage as pressure in a water line. The molecules of water at one end of the line are no different than the molecules at the other end of the line. However at the high pressure end they are bump into each other a lot more. In a wire, the particles generating the voltage are the...

ok. let's take the example of atomic movement since that is what i described in post#3 above. You use a flame to heat iron metal. The color starts out red and then becomes white as the temp rises. http://www.giangrandi.ch/optics/blackbody/blackbody.shtml So the frequency of light emitted when I...

Sir you speak in riddles. Please elaborate on your last six words.

thank you for your reply. indeed light is quantized but that's not what i am asking. I am asking why isn't there a 'quantum description of heat'. The stupidity of this question is based on my making an analogy to the photoelectric effect. The observation that the ejection of electrons requires a...

When I think about the structure of an atom and its tightly bound subatomic particles, it is a different regime than the 'world of molecules' and their motion. The early theory of light emission (Bohr, etc) described the emission of light as a phenomenon associated with the transition of an...

I am trying to understand the concept of buoyancy at the statistical mechanical level. Can you provide insight or equation where position of a particle in a uniform gravitational field is dependent on its kinetic energy? Or do the same experiment in an accelerating spaceship. What is it about...