Recent content by darthoctopus

Um, intuition? Just the smallest number of mutually independent variables required to completely describe any state of the system within constraints.

There are monopoles and there are dipoles. Monopoles are sinks/sources (e.g. point masses, charges) which give a nonzero divergence. Magnetic dipoles (the type you find in solenoids, say) give zero divergence because on the whole they are neither sources nor sinks. So no, they are not the same...

anything affordable? =\

One of http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts-apparel/jewelry/7ae3/". :D Actually they're surprisingly easy to make if you can't/won't buy from Thinkgeek. I've made two (for presents) this year.