Recent content by physicsisphirst

i've been away more than 5 yrs and can't find the thread that used to tell you how to code latex. you could practise there too without burdening others with your errors. where is that thread? or something similar? in friendship, prad

well palladin, it's not that it couldn't be said, it's that it doesn't happen at least for this pen which i think works on capillary action. the exact opposite happens as i outlined. i think it could be the way you state it though for a squeeze or cartridge fountain pen and definitely for a...

pallidin, i agree with you and apologize for causing this confusion. i wrote "i keep the pen rightside up (the way you'd carry it on the clip in your pocket)" and it wasn't sufficiently clear especially since pens do have clips in various places though i have never seen a fountain pen that is...

we just have a discrepancy regarding interpretation of orientation. let me rephrase it. if the nib is pointing down, i would think gravity would pull the ink towards the nib - which it doesn't seem to be succeeding in doing if we just leave the pen lying around with the nib pointing down...

i meant just towards the nib, pallidin. presumably with an upside down pen, gravity would pull the ink towards the nib which it does for regular fountain pens and ball points (which don't write too well when the nib is pointing up). in friendship, prad

this is a unique fountain pen from the 60s in that you don't squeeze anything to get ink into it. you just dip the solid one piece 'cartridge' into the ink and it fills, presumably through capillary action - i don't know what's inside, but i doubt if it is a sponge to have lasted all these...

geometrick, you don't need to read atlas shugged (it's a big fat book anyway and unlikely to enhance your understanding of math or physics). you merely need to understand that there are many ways to give back and that you don't have to work in the social justice arena to contribute to it. in...

greenneub, failing it may not be a bad thing if you don't really understand what you are doing. i recall i didn't attend most of my 1st year calculus classes, but crammed and studied specific areas which just happened to show up on the exam. i pulled off a 75% for the whole course. however, i...

(been away for a week and putting in a very brief appearence for now.) it is precisely for the health benefits to the mother and the baby that people adopt veg diets (just as my wife did!) all this morality stuff aside, it is important to understand that not only can one maintain weight...

oh dear :frown: i think my physics needs more help than i realized if i have forgotten this sort of thing. :redface: thank you for explaining all this, Gokul.

"athletes need meat" is one of those silly ideas that still occasionally rears its ridiculous head ... well, i suppose since some athletes do use steroids and stuff, they will find a suitable source of those sorts of things in meat etc. :smile: some people are still under the weird...

thanks for clarifying this francis. if you "treat every animal great and can kill it painlessly", you may not get any objections from the utilitarian faction provided their premise is to minimize suffering. (note: that since this doesn't really happen, it is as you say merely "an exercise")...

ok thanks for the explanation - it makes sense. but wouldn't the absence of friction decrease the decelerating force and therefore create an acceleration? what about a curling stone that you slide over a carpet that is on an ice rink. what will happen when the rock hits the edge of the carpet...

i agree! other than a few minor outbursts this is one of the best threads on this sort of topic I've seen for quite some time. i think that as different people come into the thread, they make different contributions. i think it is best to see a forum thread as a conversation at an openhouse...

but wouldn't the real issue be friction? say the total energy of the system is given by E_{Total} = E_{kinetic} - E_{friction} the frictional energy is negative because it is going out of the system. now if by applying the brakes we cause skidding and thereby reduce the frictional...