Recent content by Calabi_Yau

This is for an experimental physics homework,I am using the latest version of MS Excel. I have a set of data, I perform linear regression on them and it gives me a line y=ax + b. Given that both a and b have physical significance I would like to know how could I know the uncertainty...

Thanks a bunch, I will look them up.

By informal, I meant where the emphasis of the book was put. I will certainly acquire something like Boas for a start, and it seems to have a good reputation here. I will take it into account as well as the recommended books by my teachers. The reason I asked what I asked here, was because...

I think that is a very common problem. For me, it works to be sure I master the basic concepts first and do all the "compulsory" homework, and then treat myself with challenging problems. Why do this? For me, I found that while I could solve hard problems, the exams always had some direct...

The thing is I am more likely to become a mathematician than a physicist as I have come to realize that for as much as I feel intrigued about physics and their problems, what really drives me is the mathematics and not necessarily the physics. I had suspected this all along, and found that the...

I'm majoring in physics and I'm about to take a course entitled Mathematical Methods of Physics. It covers Sturm-Liouville Theory, Integral Transforms, Fourier Analysis and PDEs. I read in the thread "So you Want to be a Physicist" that ”Mathematical Methods in the Physical Science” by Mary...

Right, I see. I assumed \frac{dr.r}{dt} = 0 does not imply dr(t)/dt = 0. (Sorry for not writing with the proper symbols, but I am not very used to using those features)

After a few unsuccessful efforts to try to prove it by means of pure geometry, I learned a very useful theorem about ellipses, that the tangent of a point bissects the exterior angle. I just had to prove that. Then I found the answer where I least expected. I learned about Fermat's principle of...

Homework Statement A comet revolves around the sun in a closed elliptical trajectory. Ignore any force acting upon it besides gravity. Prove that the angle between the position vector (sun in the origin) and the velocity vector of the comet at its perihelion and aphelion is 90º. The...

Yes, it provides with a counterexample, for i = M, which proves it isn't true for all i, but I thought we had to prove it is wrong for ALL i.

On the Levy-Desplanques theorem proof: http://planetmath.org/levydesplanquestheorem, they only prove the second inequality for M = i. What about if i ≠ M? e.g. if we are doing it for the first line on a singular matriz and M ≠ 1 we can't get to the second inequality. I thought that to prove...

I think the solution won't be much complicated as the problem is on Serway's Physics for Scientists and Enginneers. I guess, I'll skip this one for a while and get back to it later. If you come up with something, or if I come up with something I'll post it.

Can I use simple pendulum equations for the tangential velocity? Because after all, the tangential component of the force is the same as if it were a simple pendulum, and I can't figure out any other way to find the tangential component as I don't know the motion equations. As with the radial...

Homework Statement A system consists of a spring with force constant k = 1250 N/m, length L = 1.50m, and an object of mass m = 5.00kg attached to the end. The object is placed at the level of the point of attachment with the spring unstretched, at position yi= L, an then is released so that it...

The determinant being the product of the eigenvalues only applies if the matrix is invertible, I guess. The absolute value of the real eigenvalues of a rotation matriz is always 1. But there are orthogonal matrices with complex eigenvalues. But I already got it. By showing that the matrix R has...