Recent content by RJMooreII

Are there any good layman books on QCD? Most quantum mechanics related material I've read or watched online relates to QED and problems like quantum gravity. I've of course heard quarks mentioned, but no real detailed discussion of gluons, the various colors, how these relations manifest...

Any Good Resources for Non-Technical, Non-"Popular" Physics Videos? I am a huge fan of Richard Feynman, because he would often give lectures which were not directed at a technical-mathematical audience yet which nonetheless didn't 'fake' elements or resort to goofy comparisons such as billiard...

Are there any developed theories to explain why Muons and Taus decay so quickly, and why they don't stick around and leave us with x-ray emitting hydrogen atoms? It would be interesting if we could get them to last longer (I suppose relativistic speeds do, but that's still insignificant on the...

Okay, so this, "A photon can decay into an electron positron pair in the Coloumb field of a nucleus when the center of momentum frame energy exceeds the rest mass of the nucleus plus two electrons"? Which would mainly be gamma rays, right?

Ah, okay. Quick question, since positrons were brought up...a photon is it's own anti-particle, right? I mean, can't two photons hit each other and spit out, say, an electron and positron? I think I've heard this, but I've also heard that photons can't interact with one another. I mean...

I'm not always symbol savvy...this is a proton–proton chain reaction you've got here? I need to take some intro physics in college :|. I'm good with a lot of the qualitative stuff, but I have never delved much into the math except for some limited fiddling with relativity and the easy stuff...

Well, obviously, I mean even if it could keep all it's plasma it would eventually break down due to loss of energy in the form of light. But what I mean is that the sun is, to a fair extent, able to keep itself going for quite some time. Of course, it also has absolutely enormous quantities of fuel.

And this is a problem the sun has 'solved', since it's gravity well continuously force feeds the plasma back into itself and creates sustained heat and compression, ja?

Right, because, as I understand it, it's quite difficult to keep the reaction going in a localized position? Obviously fusion bombs have more output than the fission reaction that gets them going, but such a boom isn't quite useful for power generation.

Yes, unfortunate for us on Earth that we can't replicate the easy way to get nuclear fusion, extreme gravitational forces :P. Of course, if we could generate extreme Gs in localized and controlled situations, it would probably be simpler to make a singularity, throw matter at it and catch the...

Interesting. So there are still elements about the formation of the neutrons and proton interaction that aren't well explained. What I recall Feynman saying is that, under certain circumstances, you can treat neutrons and protons as point-like particles and the normal rules for quantum...

:approve: Thanks, this had been bouncing around in my mind for a while now.

Thanks, everyone :)

Hello everyone, my name's Ricky (or RJ, whichever you prefer). My interest in physics (and, incidentally, logic and philosophy) started when I was watching Star Trek on my tiny black and white television as a child. Around the time I was eight or ten years old I got interested in astrophysics...

I was re-watching Richard Feynman's 1979 New Zealand lectures on Quantum Electro-Dynamics, and one of the points he brings up is that there is not a satisfactory formulation of nuclear behavior in quantum equations. Has this since been resolved? Is there a satisfactory quantum formulation of...