Recent content by f.c.

you might find the wikipedia article on radiation pressure helpful: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiation_pressure

oh dear! i am not at all sure! i suspect i asked the wrong question because i do not precisely understand what is going on! so, try again! -- and to quickly recap, the old idea was, i believe, that the total mass of the electron was comprised of an intrinsic mass or mechanical mass, i.e. the...

but was it not once thought that the mass of the electron, (or at least part of it), was due to the energy tied up in its electric field? since presumably this electromagnetic mass effect still make some kind of contribution to the actual observed mass, how does that fit into the higgs field...

it may be worth mentioning that just as the 1-component non relativistic Schrödinger equation can be tweaked to accommodate spin by adding on a \sigma . {\bf B} type term, so too can the klein-gordon be modified with a \sigma . ({\bf B} + \imath{\bf E} ) term i.e: (\Box + \sigma . ({\bf...

umm. not even an ig i reckon! but, maybe you could try for a research grant from a toothbrush company, for i am not entirely convinced that 2nd paper (Electrical Deflection of Polar Liquid Streams: A Misunderstood Demonstration by Maryam Ziaei-Moayyed and Edward Goodman ) has covered all bases...

i have a glass dropping/ separating funnel with a ground glass tap for that which now that i think on it is not perhaps standard issue in your typical chemistry set and makes me feel a tad guilty for complaining that no-one else was doing any experiments! (and doubly so in view of your...

ok, one last final post on this subject before i get murdered, (or get to spend the night on the sofa), so if small child A holds her toothbrush handle very close to the top of the stream so it deflects to the right (say), then when child B brings up his toothbrush close but further down, the...

i would just like to make clear that it makes no appreciable difference whether the rate of flow is adjusted to produce either well-defined separate drops or a continuous stream, the deflection observed is always in the direction of the charged rod, whether plastic or glass, i.e. +ve or -ve...

ah, well, yes, i think i have misunderstood. i thought that the mechanism proposed was that the fluid picked up a permanent charge directly on leaving the end of the dropping funnel, and it was this permanent charge +ve, or -ve, that i hoped to detect by using the differently charged rods.-- but...

yes, that one i have seen before, very odd!. though for sheer mind-boggling gravity-defying weirdness, that quantum locking business must surely wins, hands down http://io9.com/5850729/quantum-locking-will-blow-your-mind--but-how-does-it-work but never mind! this is drifting way off topic...

... entirely possible alas, for the purity, or lack of it, is something i have no way of assessing. but anyway, thank _you_ for your original question, it has been a lot of fun messing about in the kitchen trying to find something that _wouldn't_ bend, but unless i can figure out some way to...

well, i had a go with de-ionised water and that bent like the video. but then maybe it wasnt de-ionised enough? though when i tried isopropanol and then methanol, they both bent too. at which point alas, i ran out of solvents to try since i am not at the lab!

well, would not the short answer be that there is a torque trying to re-orient the spin axis, but in order to actually flip the spin over, the angular momentum would need to change, and in a static external magnetic field that cannot happen, and the best that can be achieved is a precession...

apparently not, provided that is you arrange for all the atoms to be polarized in the same direction by application of a high magnetic field at low temperatures. sadly however all i know about the subject is what i have gleaned from googling "spin polarized atomic hydrogen" an interesting...