Recent content by SoggyBottoms

I really don't have anything to add to the above discussion, but this question has crossed my mind a lot. Instead of a philosophical answer, shouldn't the answer lie in physics? Obviously I don't know what it is, but if we ever find an answer, wouldn't it be, for instance, an entropy related...

Thanks.

I want to indent everything after the first line, but not the first line itself. So it needs to come out like this: Physicsforums is a very interesting place where you can learn a whole lot and such and so and such and so. Is this possible?

It does, and I've looked up those books and referenced to them instead where possible. I'm still left with a large chunk of citations to this book and outside of this book there is really not much information to be found about the subject.

Brilliant.

I'm currently writing an essay and I'm finding myself using and quoting one particular book a lot. Obviously I'm referencing everything, but would it be a good idea to add something like 'In particular, I will make use of Bart Simpson's excellent book 'The Excellent Book' in my exploration...

At t = 0 a particle is in the (normalized) state: \Psi(x, 0) = B \sin(\frac{\pi}{2a}x)\cos(\frac{7\pi}{2a}x) With B = \sqrt{\frac{2}{a}}. Show that this can be rewritten in the form \Psi(x, 0) = c \psi_3(x) + d \psi_4(x) We can rewrite this to: \Psi(x, 0) = \frac{B}{2}\left[ c...

I have the following integral, but I don't know how to solve it: \int_{-n \pi /2}^{n \pi / 2} y^2[1 + \cos(2y)] dy , with n = 1, 3, 5... Any ideas?

Thanks.

Homework Statement See attached image. The Attempt at a Solution I get a different solution: First multiply by \sqrt{2}, then {1 \choose -1} = {c + d \choose ci - di}. So we get c + d = 1 and so (1 - d)i - di = -1. Solving the last one gives 2di = 1 + i, so d = \frac{1 + i}{2i} =...

It doesn't indeed, but they use all the terms interchangeably it seems, so it's confusing. Thanks.

So all three terms are actually the same? At least as far as my introductory QM is concerned? Eigenvector = eigenspinor = eigenstate?

Thanks!

For spin-1/2, the eigenvalues of S_x, S_y and S_z are always \pm \frac{\hbar}{2} for spin-up and spin-down, correct? What is the difference between eigenvectors, eigenstates and eigenspinors? I believe eigenstates = eigenspinors and eigenvectors are something else? I'm just getting confused...

Now I have to calculate the expectation value of the energy. E = \frac{p^2}{2m}, so \langle E \rangle = \langle \frac{p^2}{2m} \rangle and with \langle p \rangle = \int_{-\infty}^{\infty} \Psi^{\ast} \frac{\hbar}{i} \frac{\partial}{\partial x} \Psi dx we get: \langle E \rangle =...