Recent content by Herman Trivilino

Not to me. For example you don't suck fluid up through a drinking straw. You lower the pressure at the top of the straw so that the atmosphere can push the fluid up the straw. Vacuum cleaners are another example. They don't suck the dirt into the machine. They lower the pressure so that the...

In my experience this definitely takes a great deal of time and effort. Reading something like Spacetime Physics by Taylor and Wheeler and working through all the examples and chapter-end exercises requires time and effort. But there's no substitute for it. Reading popsci explanations is more...

Not to me. The fan pushes air at the front but it doesn't suck air from the back. It creates a lower pressure on the back side and thus the atmosphere pushes air into that region of lower pressure.

This dust pattern is also observed on the flat blades of ceiling fans. Well known to those of us fighting the never-ending battle of keeping them clean.

You're still not getting it. If we are moving inertially relative to each other then either of us could validly claim to be at rest and the other in motion. Each of us would observe the other's time to be dilated. A notion that stumped Einstein himself as he was creating his theory. He resolved...

Is this a rehash of your original question? Look again at the answer I gave you. The issue you are having trouble wrapping your head around is the fact that motion is relative. Relative to your desk you're motionless. The motion you quote above is relative to the sun. But we're also in motion...

There's no way distinguish between being at rest and moving in a straight line at a steady speed. The two states are equivalent. It's hard to answer your question because I don't know how an object would perceive time. People do, and so the way you would perceive time is the same way you do so...

He also said that things should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler. I take your point about discussions and images and mental models. Those things are an important part of an education. And there are plenty of opportunities to introduce them. I just don't think this is one of them. I...

Should be ##dt=−2u/c^2\ du##

Not relevant. The speed of impact is what's given in this simple problem. Why make it harder on the OP?

It's not the acceleration itself that increases the energy. It's the force, and only if that force continues to act after the collision. In my opinion you don't need to worry about that because the statement of the problem doesn't specify that detail. I think all that's needed is an...

The thing that makes Einstein's relativity unique is the Second Postulate: Light in a vacuum always moves at the same speed regardless of the speed of the source.

I don't understand what you mean by "relative to the speed of light"? We refer to objects, not speeds, when we speak of relative motion. For example, when my car's speedometer reads 60 mi/h it means I'm moving at that speed relative to the road. I might try to measure speed relative to...

I was there when the technology for creating video content became available. The possibilities are enticing and the equipment (very) affordable, but I agree that the amount of effort is overwhelming. Like many others I dabbled in it but never invested the effort to bring it to fruition. One...