I guess what I am trying to ask is the following: if the incident blue light has "power = 1" and the incident red light has "power =1," but the blue scatters with "power = 10," where does the extra energy needed to "amplify" the blue light come from?
Why won't some of it scatter forward...
The sky is blue because blue light resonates with the air molecules and therefore has a higher scattering intensity (due to Raleigh scattering). Thus, we see blue light when we look at the sky (any light that we see, while not looking directly at the sun, must have been scattered).
Is this...
In an earlier chapter he defines Temperature by (3/2)kT = Average Kinetic Energy of a molecule. The link I gave is where he uses that to then get the Boltzmann distribution. Is there some other derivation of the Boltzmann distribution? I don't think I've ever seen it derived; only taken as a given.
Sure, I was just using (1/2)kT per degree of freedom since (I think) that's the minimum you need to assume for my next two questions.
This is something I am still a little confused about. Temperature is always introduced with kinetic theory. Then, they add more degrees of freedom, but these...
I am confused about the following; where am I going wrong here?
1. (1/2)kT is defined as the average kinetic energy of the molecules of a substance at temperature T, right?
2. You can derive the Boltzmann distribution/Boltzmann factors using (1/2)kT as the kinetic energy, making an argument...
I get that. I had always understood these gratings as allowing the "original" light to pass through the holes in them, then interfere with itself. However, I recently read (Feynman Lectures) that the light excites the elections in the metal grating, and that is what emits the light which forms...
Simple question about this:
Say you have a wire diffraction grating. Does the incoming light excite the electrons in the metal, which scatter new light *or* does the incoming light simply pass through the "holes" in the mesh and get absorbed by the grating? I've seen it explained both ways, yet...
By this argument, why would it not be that the existence of *any* gap, regardless of size, prevents conduction? (And more to the point, there is always a small gap between levels, the continuum limit is just an approximation.)
Also, in the case of an electric field, V is by definition *not*...
(This though came up while learning about band structure, so that is how I am going to explain it, but I think it applies equally well to a square well, for example).
Say you have an electron at the Fermi level of an insulator. Then, you apply an electric field. No current flows, because all...
It does not. For some reason I had thought the "fixed" point was the point of contact of the top on the surface, not the CoM. Now I think it makes sense. Thank you!
I think I more or less understand how a gyroscope precesses--at least mathematically and in terms of torque/angular momentum.
My question here is: how does the gyroscope start precessing in the first place? The external forces on the center of mass are entirely vertical. Given that Newton's...