Recent content by mjcguest

AC Electric Neutral Current "Flow" Hi everyone Can someone point me in the right direction here please. Happy to do the digging, but so far I can't find anything that helps! In an AC alternating-current electrical circuit, the Neutral wire is ultimately connected to "mother earth" / "big...

Thanks for your thought Tea Jay, but I'm hoping to get a definitive reply Can anyone out there enlighten me?

Having consumed my own weight in Xmas dinners over the last week I would find that most welcome! However, my question relates more to a generic massive object. As far as I'm aware (which may not be far), there's no theory that suggest a massive object will decay over time due to the loss of...

With so much coverage in the press over the seemingly imminent discovery of the Higgs particle, there's one question that never seems to get raised - which more than likely means I've missed something fundamentally simple; so this may be a very short thread! Higgs Boson / Graviton - it may be...

Sounds right. The article was pointing out that even elements or compounds which only react very reluctantly with oxygen (which leaves me with visions of teenager type elements sitting in a corner refusing to react) will do so explosively when in dust form. A quick wiki search shows that...

Same with almost any dust. I've read (although with no source attached) that you could make asbestos dust explode if it were fine enough. Certainly this is the case for fine metalic dusts

Thanks - that puts me back on the right path! Cheers Matt

There's a very useful FAQ entitled IS LIGHT A WAVE OR A PARTICLE? It carefully warns against confusing a "particle" of light with a regular particle. I have a funny feeling I may be doing this... hence the need for a clarification! When considering light as a wave; should I consider that...

Me being lazy... I meant the difference in observation caused by two observers being different distance from an event :-) Many reletavistic effects can be explained by this, but many others have to be explained through changes to spacetime.

Good point! The effects of lag are interesting in their own right, but the more you get into the subject, the more fascinating - not to mention mind bending - it becomes. Have you ever wanted to store a 10 metre pole in a 5 meter shed? Well travel fast enough and you can do. For a fraction of...

Someone observing the ball from outside the car - i.e. in a different frame of refernce - will indeed see the ball go straight up and down **with respect to the car** (this is the key bit - they won't see the ball land in the back seat or something daft... they will see it land in the same...

I have - and it's gives a superb explanation of the change in speed; but I can't see anything that explains why the angle of refraction changes in relation to the wavelength Any pointers to layman-friendly sources would be gratefully receieved! Thanks Matt

Why the need for atmospheric pressure? A fluid spun in a rotationally will form a parabola in a vacuum, why is this necessary for the rolling cylinder?

Superb link- Thank you!

Thanks Tim. You've sort of highlighted the question... I have access to plenty of text that tells me what will happen, but nothing I've found that tells me why?