Recent content by chris2112

so just to be clear, macroscopic light interference patterns, such as the airy disk or young's double slit, are just the photons quantum probability waves in action?

scientists have observed light acting as waves on a macroscopic scale before the quantum characteristics of particles were discovered. My question is what sets apart the macroscopic wavelike characteristcs of light apart from other matter waves? This may be a stupid question but can the...

I was hoping someone could explain something I'm not quite understanding about light waves. I've researched many sources but I'm still not understanding exactly how they propagate. I understand that the electric field in any perpendicular section of the light ray creates a magnetic field...

I kind of have a stupid question. How much more massive would the Earth have to be for the average person to weigh about 50 more pounds? How much bigger could the Earth's diameter be? Thanks.

An interesting question was asked in my class today when learning about time dilation. We were shown the classic example of a light ray perpendicular to the floor of a moving train reflecting off the ceiling back to it's source. We were shown the lightray make an angle at the ceiling for an...

Have tachyons been ruled out as a possibility? If so, why? Another question that seems important to ask- what are the origin of the neutrinos? Are they produced and given speed by some sort of reaction we create or are they somehow contained and then accelerated?

I'm just asking if due to the space-time warping contribution of an object falling toward earth, even if virtual to us, can the object be seen to be accelerating in the reference frame of an object falling next to it with less mass and less warping contribution?

In general relativity (closest theory to reality) gravity is not a "force" so I'd like to keep Newton's approximations aside. If the speed of free-fall of an object toward a massive body is due to the mass of both bodies as both contribute to the curvature of space-time, and mass does not resist...

F being the gravitational force of the objects gravitational field I suppose? Does mass really resist the free-fall of another object's gravitational field? Would Newton's law apply to general relativity where objects are really just free-falling at different rates depending on their mass?

So the free-falling rate of an object toward the Earth is solely dependent on the Earth's gravitational field and not it's own?

Simple question, if the force of gravity is proportional to mass and distance, as in Newton's and Einstein's theories of gravitation, then why do people say that objects with two different masses accelerate at the same rate independent of mass on earth? Can Galileo's rule just be a practical...

OK, so you can detect if a charged particle goes through one slit or the other by changes in current flows placed at each slit. What about particles with no charge like photons? Are there other methods or are certain particles like photons just omitted for the double slit experiment with detection?

How exactly do physicists detect if a particle goes through one slit or the other in the double-slit experiment? Every book and article I read seems to elude this part.

I ask because I think I see two nuclei, can galaxies develop two nuclei without merging?

Is there a function of mass that tells us the distance that two objects are no longer gravitationally bound and start moving away from each other due to dark energy? Is mass arbitrary at a certain distance? To make my question broader, can anyone show me equations describing relationships...