Recent content by Lucretius

Well how it works is you take "classes" and are taught the material while you work. It's a few years training program so I'd essentially end up with a masters level understanding of the subject before I really became a 'cryptanalyst'. I'm currently looking at actuarial stuff because that...

Thanks for the responses; yes I realize that the NSA has a terribly long clearance process, and that even if I got a COE now in July I wouldn't have a job by next March with them. I wasn't aware that I could apply before I had a degree and just say "I will have degree by X time" Knowing that...

So here is my situation: I am planning on graduating March 2011 with a B.S in Mathematics, as well as a B.S. in Physics. My interest in physics has waned greatly, and my desire to go to grad school for either subject is non-existent right now. I took a look at the NSA, as I heard they hire...

No, you wouldn't. The specifics of your example don't really matter. At low speeds you use what is called "Galilean Relativity": the idea that you can add up or subtract speeds. If you are in a car going 75 MPH relative to the ground, and a car passes you going 80 MPH relative to the ground...

Ah, I got it, I think. If I use the u-substitution you suggest, I get du=\frac{1}{\sqrt{x^2+z^2}}-\frac{x^2}{(x^2+z^2)^{3/2}}dx, which, getting a common denominator yields: \frac{z^2}{(x^2+z^2)^{3/2}}. So \frac{du}{z^2}=\frac{dx}{(x^2+z^2}dx My integral is then just \frac{\lambda...

Sure thing. I'm trying to find the electric field at an arbitrary distance z above a straight line segment, where the arbitrary distance z is measured above one of the endpoints of the line segment. Relevant Equations: We are given that the electric field of a line charge is \frac{1}{4...

Homework Statement It's been god knows how long since I've had to use integration by substitution. I've totally forgotten it. I am trying to integrate to solve for the value of an electric field at a given point. The integral I am trying to solve is...

My friend in introductory physics came to me for help today. He has a test on angular momentum, acceleration etc. I figured, with me in upper-division physics courses, I'd be able to help him out. Well, I guess I was dead wrong. In half an hour I couldn't figure out a SINGLE THING. I don't...

Homework Statement There is a shuttle following a circular orbit around a planet. At some point P in the orbit, the shuttle fires thrusters causing the speed at that point to increase. I am supposed to a) find the angular momentum, gravitational force at the point P, centripetal acceleration...

(This isn't a homework problem, I'm struggling with this concept) My professor today was talking about time dilation. He stated that a clock that does not move in the observers point of view (a stationary clock) is, in that observer's viewpoint: a proper time. Thus, an observer on Earth will...

How long should I go at these proofs before I realize they're a lost cause? I worked on this fibonacci sequence one for several hours over the course of a few days, and in the end, someone else just ended up doing the problem on the board. I'll have to rearrange office hours with my...

I'm sure that for many of you this class is old news; but I just started elementary number theory this summer and, as much as I love the challenge of the course, and doing these proofs; I feel like an amateur boxing Mike Tyson here. These things are chewing me up and spitting me out. Granted I...

I have to agree with everyone here when I say: studying 10-12 hours a day is way too much time. Not only is it wasteful to study that long (not to mention to try it in one sitting), it takes away every other aspect of your life. You need to make time for socializing and exercise. Look, my...

Well, I just learned in my EM class that what sustains the EM wave is fact that changing electric and magnetic fields continually produce one another; that is; an electric field that changes produces a changing magnetic field, and vice versa.

I'm currently reading about EM waves in my physics course, but there is something that is not clear to me. I know, from Maxwell's equations, that a changing electric field produces a magnetic field and a changing magnetic field likewise produces an electric field. However, it seemed from my...