Recent content by WraithGlade

Thanks for the replies everyone! All of the replies were quite useful in regards to different aspects of the intuition. I'm going to spend some more time thinking about this and trying practice problems from my physics books and thought exercises until I've got a solid understanding. Action...

One concept in physics that has never set well with me is the way work and energy are defined. According to all the physics sources I've looked at, work is defined as: W = \vec{F} \cdot \vec{d} (for a constant force over a distance) However, intuitively the notion of taking the dot...

That's sounds like a classic inverse trig obstacle that we encounter all the time in computer science (I'm a programmer by trade). Have you considered using the multi-parameter version of the tangent function? i.e. arctan(x, y) rather than arctan(y/x) It's used in programming libraries to...

Hi. I'm trying to figure out how transfer of momentum works so that I can simulate it reasonably accurately and understand it on an intuitive level. My intuition goes like this: Momentum must be conserved. Therefore, if for example I had a 1 meter long Newton's Cradle with numerous polished...

Thanks for the info

Oh, and I should also say that I would average the infinite sum of random variables so as to reform it back to the original range. In other words, if I added 50 random variables together as one value, then I would divide the sum by 50 to bring everything back to [0,1). Would doing this at...

Hey everyone. I haven't taken statistics yet, but as a matter of interest I was contemplating the fact that uniform random variables added together seem to generate "bell curve" like distributions. My question is if I add up an infinite number of equally distributed random variables will the...

Hmm... I listed mass as a parameter effecting the coefficient of restitution (Cr), but perhaps density is more relevant. Not sure. Density is the amount of mass per unit volume, and for example an object with greater density therefore pushes with greater force per unit of it's contact area...

I believe my previous example of the steel ball colliding with mud was perhaps overly simplistic. I have been contemplating it further and it seems that the coefficient of restitution (Cr) is effected by more than just the elasticity of each object. All of the following characteristics of...

I've recently been looking for information on how to describe elastic and inelastic collisions in a way that spans the full set of possibility of different levels of elasticity between objects. In both of my physics textbooks I was only able to find quantified information on the two extremes...

Hi. I am not in any way proficient in thermodynamics, but I was thinking about insulation and heat transfer and a few questions occurred to me. Since insulation blocks heat transfer, shouldn't a winter coat block heat in a hot climate? If you could only choose between wearing almost nothing...

I remember working on an Euler-Bernoulli beam problem in my Numerical Analysis class last semester. I'm not quite sure how the equation was derived though, the course focused more on computation concerns like methods of solving and errors and so forth (as one would expect from a Numerical...

The radiation contamination is an interesting point and example. It's interesting that the contamination is enough to make unexposed metal profitable enough for a market to develop for it.

Thank you for your reply, it does help. Indeed, oblique central seems a better description. As you said, it's weird that their definition of non-central is not a logical negation of central. One would think that simple logical negations would not be that hard to make errors on, but...

Yes, it was an odd question I admit. It probably sounded fairly naive in several respects but I felt like posting it anyway as a thought. I was well aware that differentiability is (mathematically) easily infinite (such as trig. functions for example). I was thinking more along the lines of...