Recent content by Phyzwizz

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    Schools Too Late To Make a Turn Around and Get Into Grad School?

    My adviser didn't actually advise me at all on my courses and course load. Thank you for the advice everyone. I'm not so distraught as I was before, knowing there's at least a sliver of hope, given increased effort and better decisions in the future. Would it then be advantageous to perhaps go...
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    Schools Too Late To Make a Turn Around and Get Into Grad School?

    I'm a physics and likely math major, heading into the second half of the first semester of my sophomore year in college. I started college taking all sophomore classes having placed out of all freshmen courses. I did poorly my first year and this year, thus far I have started off similarly, only...
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    Undergraduate or Graduate Quantum Mechanics?

    Thanks for all the advice, I've decided the best thing is probably just to take the undergraduate course now, since I'll have to take the graduate course eventually anyways.
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    Undergraduate or Graduate Quantum Mechanics?

    I only really know of undergrads who are currently taking the course. In the long run, should one not develop a mathematically rigorous understanding of the physics in order to make extrapolations from current knowledge or is this really not how important theoretical physics research is...
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    Undergraduate or Graduate Quantum Mechanics?

    1. The graduate QM course does not have a requirement of having taken the undergraduate QM course. For the undergraduate B.S. of "Mathematics and Physics" it is actually suggested to take the graduate course for this major. 2. I spoke with the course instructor and he said that the assignment...
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    Undergraduate or Graduate Quantum Mechanics?

    I am an undergraduate student and I am currently trying to decide whether to take undergraduate or graduate Quantum Mechanics. I plan to do a PhD in physics later on, so I assume that I will eventually take a graduate course in Quantum Mechanics, so I figure I might as well take it now, being...
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    Δp for total reflection and absorbtion of E&M radiation explanation?

    The equation for the change in momentum for total absorption of electromagnetic radiation is ΔU/c and that for total reflection is (2ΔU)/c. How could the momentum of electromagnetic radiation change if it is massless and travels at a constant speed c? Is the ΔU just a representation of a change...
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    Magnetic field directionality, mathematic rigmarole?

    The force as a result of a moving charged particle through a magnetic field is perpendicular to the field apparently. Why should the magnetic field be perpendicular to the force created as a result. F.b=q(vXB) is the mathematical notation for this which accurately describes the world. But I...
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    Bose-Einstein-Condensate and Superposition

    I was wondering what connections there are between the Bose Einstein Condensate (BEC) and the Superposition principle. The BEC is a collection of quantum particles that as a whole apparently follows the same rules as quantum particles, so does this mean that the superposition principle would...
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    Electrostatic forces between multiple particles

    Alright well that makes much more sense, thank you. The book just seems to have worded things in an obfuscatory fashion.
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    Electrostatic forces between multiple particles

    So I was reading my textbook and it says that we are given a situation where two particles of the same charge are separated by the distance 0.0200m. Another particle of the opposite charge is then placed in between the other two particles, 3/4 the distance mentioned away from one and thus 1/4...
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    Mass Increase When Light Speed Increases: Einstein's Theory

    So light, in fact, has not been made to move faster than light and what the researchers did (I think it was at Harvard) was to take advantage of the medium's refractive index? How disappointing.
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    Mass Increase When Light Speed Increases: Einstein's Theory

    Through Einstein's Theory of Special Relativity it is known that as the speed of something approaches that of light its mass will increase. In the lab scientists have sped light up past the speed of about 299 792 458 m / s (Light's normal speed). Since light is allowed to go beyond that which...
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    Schools Taking an honors physics class at a local university while in high school.

    Thanks for all the helpful advice. I talked to the professor and he said the most challenging part is just the application of math to the physics. I've decided to take the class I took out James Stewart's Calculus 5e and I'm starting to work my way through Calc 2 topics hopefully this book will...
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    How does the Higgs field differentiate between particles giving specific masses

    I was wondering how (or if it is known) the Higgs assigns different masses to different particles. We know that mass comes from the resistance that the Higgs field provides to particles but why are some particles such as photons able to move through without a hint of resistance, whereas...
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