Recent content by ed2288

Ok so I think I've now convinced myself that if I were to shine a light at an opaque square (slanted so it casts a shadow), then the shadow it would cast would be narrower at the top than it is at the bottom. Is this diagram that I've drawn physically accurate? Is this the same principle...

Thanks for your help. So I've started to draw a ray diagram to try and help understand what you said. The green line is a side view of the square of paper on the table. Am I going in the right direction? From this diagram, how can I now get what the eye is seeing?

I'm still confused unfortunately. Let's take a very simple example. I know from life experience, that if I have a perfect square of green paper, lie it flat on a table, and put it a little distance in front of me, then look down on it - this is what my eyes will see...

In the above image, all the z-direction lines are converging at the vanishing point, as we would expect. Are you saying the x or y lines should be skewed too and converge too?

Imagine looking at a set of x-y-z axes, from directly along the z-axis. Say in this image, the road is the line z=0. Why is it, that only lines on or parallel to the z-axis get skewed? All the surfaces that are in or parallel to the x-y plane remain undistorted, and their angles are at 90...

Hi everyone, I was wondering if someone could clarify how to put both .ps and .jpg files in the same latex file. At the minute I'm having to convert all my .jpgs to .ps using photoshop then compiling my latex file by going Latex->PS->PDF. However all my converted jpgs look all pixelated...

Hi everybody. Apologies for asking what may be a very simple question, but in every textbook I've read, they say that the net flux through an area dA from an isotropic emitter is zero. But it also says that the sun is an isotropic emitter. Now hold on, the net flux from the sun is clearly...

Thanks very much for that reply, it cleared a lot of things up. I'm just still a little confused about this time dependence In this video, it shows a transition from 2p to 1s. Let u2 = the wavefunction for the excited state and u1 = the ground state. At time 0, the total probability...

It'd be great if you could help me clarify a few things in my head. Firstly I've got written in my notes "quantum mechanics forbids spontaneous transitions from one energy level to another because energy eigenfunctions are time independent". However this seems a bit of a circular...

Thanks for the replies, I'm understanding this much more. In response to JesseM, yes it is this return length that I'm having difficulty calculating. Here's my tentative method which gives an answer, is this the right way of doing it? Find the difference in speed between twin A and B by...

Hi all, apologies if this has been posted a million times before... I'm trying to explain the twin paradox without getting involved with length contraction. One way to think of it is Twin A remains at rest on Earth then twin B goes off at 4c/5 to Alpha centauri 4 light years away, then...

Just to clarify, by light pulse, I mean for example a bulb is switched on and off sending out a sphere of light.

But how is it possible for the light pulse to catch up to you if you're 10m ahead of it and both traveling a c?

Homework Statement A light pulse is emitted in an inertial frame. You are moving at a constant velocity of c AWAY from the pulse, and initially 10m away from the pulse. Will the pulse reach you, and what velocity will you measure for c? Homework Equations The Attempt at a...

Homework Statement Explain how a pattern of straight line fringes of equal thickness can be observed in a michelson interferometer. Homework Equations see diagram 1/3 of the way down page at http://www.holo.com/holo//book/book6&7.html The Attempt at a Solution I really am stuck...