Recent content by professorscot

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    Why does light slow down in a medium?

    Good responses Quine: You're right, ε and μ are just numbers used to describe the slow-down of light, but they don't explain why in terms of principles. And the three values c, ε0, and μ0 are most likely three parameters with two degrees of freedom. If any two of them are determined, the...
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    Why does light slow down in a medium?

    I was tutoring a student in an optics lesson the other day. We discussed the foundational concept, that light travels more slowly in a physical medium (such as air, water, or glass) than in vacuum. She asked, "Why? Because of friction?" and I said, "No, not friction," but then I had to admit...
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    Uncertainty and the > sign

    I don't know much about brackets and Hamiltonians, but there is a much simpler aspect of the time / energy uncertainty discussion that confuses me. It has to do with the sign of the uncertainty. [Disclaimer: Purists, please bear with me for a moment as I hash out my point heuristically.]...
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    Uncertainty Principle with time and frequency

    Musical applications The uncertainty relationship between time and frequency has interesting musical applications. The lower the frequency of a pitch, the longer you must hear it in order to ascertain its frequency. That's why a piccolo can play short notes but a tuba can't. A piccolo...
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    Covariant & contravariant tensors

    Homework Statement I have a few introductory problems dealing with proofs of tensor properties, and one about a transformation from rectangular to spherical coordinates. If someone has the time and inclination to help out this week, I can email you the specific problem set. (I'd prefer not...
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