Classical Definition and 1000 Threads

Hello everyone, I was wondering about the following question: Under what condition(s) could one say that the interaction between an electron and an electromagnetic wave is not governed anymore by the laws of classical electrodynamics? I would also be glad if someone could point out any...

I want a good book on classical mechanics - one that would be considered to be a graduate level text. The only Physics courses I have taken are the two standard intro physics courses taught at what seems to be every university, and a course in Computational Physics. My (relevant) math...

"Prove that the Bohr hydrogen atom approaches classical conditions when [. . .]" Homework Statement The problem and its solution are attached as ProblemSolution.jpg. Homework Equations E_k = chR/(n_k)^2 E_l = chR/(n_l)^2 ΔE = hc/λ hc/λ = chR[1/(n_k)^2 – 1/(n_l)^2] 1/ λ = R[1/(n_k)^2 –...

Homework Statement See attachment "question" Homework Equations The Attempt at a Solution See attachment "work" I did the work for (1) and (2). I end up with two equations: the first is the tension T, the second is the angular acceleration. I'm not so sure if I made any...

http://singlephoton.wikidot.com/single-photon-detection-experiment I was browsing the web earlier, and noticed that the page above said that recently there was a semi-classical (wave) explanation of the photoelectric effect (End of 2nd-3rd Line). I was wondering how this was, as I can't seem...

hi i am a bit confused watching lectures and reeding books i quite often come across dx/dt and i don't know what the "d" is. the full equation is F=ma which was rewritable as F=m*dx/dt many thanks for any help

So I've ordered Taylor's book in classical mechanics and I need some advice. My plan is to solve as many problems as I can in classical mechanics, since it seems that the type of logical thinking that is needed in classical mechanics will surface time and time again in following physics...

So ye the test begins in 2 months, and i will need to memorize all the phyisc book, its like 300 pages of good ol' physics, conitaining everything everything from electromagnetic induction, alternating current, lasers, wave osscilaitons, sound, em waves etc etc. i would like to ask about your...

I'm trying to understand how one derives the relativistic treatment of the electromagnetic interaction from the classical one and which are the extra postulates made. We can start from Maxwell's equations and the Lorentz force. From the Galilean invariance of Newton's second law of motion...

talking about ψ-epistemic, ψ-ontic and ψ-complete models.How would the world appear to us if its ontology was that of classical mechanics but every agent faced a restriction on how much they could come to know about the classical state? http://arxiv.org/pdf/1111.5057v1.pdf...The success of this...

It occurred to me today that I really don't know much about lasers. When dealing with electromagnetic waves, we always talk about plane waves, which are infinite in extent, or spherical waves, which spread out as they travel. What then is laser light? A finite plane wave? How do you treat...

Can work and energy in special relativity be described by drawing the analogy with classical physics as shown below? \bar{F}: four force \bar{v}: four velocity \tilde{F}: classical three force \tilde{v}: classical three velocity \Psi : electromagnetic tensor A. Classical The work done...

We have the wave equation in classical mechanics in one dimension in the following way \frac{\partial^2 \psi}{\partial x^2}=c^2\frac{\partial^2 \psi}{\partial t^2} on the other hand we have the Schrodinger equation in quantum mechanics in one dimension in the following way...

This question pertains to the classical treatment of Larmor precession.I don't know whether to put it in the Classical Physics forum or this so I am putting it here. In the treatment we assume that the potential energy of the dipole-magnetic field system remains constant because there is no...

I was reading the Wikipedia article on Electron magnetic dipole moments and it mentioned that the "g-factor" is need in determining the magnetic moment of an electron because it varies by approximately two from the prediction of classical mechanics. Why exactly does this discrepancy occur?

I'm taking my first upper tier physics class in fall 2012 Analytical Mechanics. I know that the calculus of variation is fundamental to understanding the Lagrangian and because this will be the only classical mechanics class I will take in my undergrad I want to understand it well. Do you think...

Find the orbits for the m mass under the F(r)=-A/r^2+B/r^3 . Where A>0 and B is positive or negative. Friends, please help me for homework

This summer I plan to self study quite a bit and want to learn as much as I can. I'm an EE major and have taken Calc 1-3, and DiffyQ/Linear algebra as well as intro physics classes. I will be taking classical mechanics in Spring 2013 but wanted to dive into Griffiths E&M book this summer. Is...

I have some questions about this paper: http://arxiv.org/abs/1102.1994v2 The author computes the entropy of the classical simulator using the Shannon entropy, then computes the entropy of the quantum simulator using von Neumann entropy and gets a smaller number, thus concluding that quantum...

I was trying to think of natural physical reasons to want to study noncommutative geometry, and it seems to me that it should be relevant even in a classical scenario. Let me know what you think of this as I am no expert. I'm not being terribly precise, either, so let me know if I should...

Ok, so I feel really bummed out even having to ask this question, but in all seriousness: I have a classical mechanics final in 11 hours. It's upper division CM not like first year stuff. Anyway, I'm decently prepared. I mean, if I take it now I will certainly pass. But I want the best...

This is what's happening: (space after "-demonstrates wave particle duality") This is the surrounding code: \begin{multicols}{2} \section*{\centerline{Classical Experiment}} \begin{singlespace*} \begin{itemize*} \item demonstrates particle/wave duality \end{itemize*}...

Homework Statement (i) State the Second Law of Thermodynamics in one or other of its forms. (ii) The heat capacity per unit volume of a particular solid at low temperatures is equal to CT3; find expressions for its internal energy and entropy S per unit volume (ignoring the effects of...

Homework Statement I was supposed to use dimensional analysis to approximate the length scale (in classical and quantum mechanics). The results I got(same as those in the answer sheet): classicalyl_c≈\frac{e^2}{4πm_ec^2ε_0}≈2.8*10^-15m In quantum mechanicsl_q≈\frac{h}{m_ec}≈2.4*10^-12m...

Homework Statement A disc of mass M, which may be considered to be a point mass, is placed on a frictionless horizontal table. A massless string is fastened to the disc and is passed through a small hole at the centre of the table. The lower end of the string is tied to the end of a flexible...

Homework Statement An airplane touches down at a speed of 100m/s. It travels 1000 metres along the runway while deceleration at a constant rate before coming to rest. How long did it take the airplane to come to rest on the runway? Xi=0m/s Xf=1000m Vix=100m/s Homework Equations...

There are many good treatments of the classical central force problem in many undergraduate and graduate textbooks. But I was unable to find a similar treatment of the retarded central force problem. I am looking for the classical treatment of the potentials of type: \delta(t'-t +...

My professor for classical mechanics has asked that we find some difficult problems in classical and solve them. My first thought was to look through my book for hard problems. However, we are using a free PDF that is rather lackluster when it comes to homework problems. Almost all of the...

Also, what are some good resources for learning ABOUT physics?

Hi! I am looking for suitable ways to learn mechanics in mathematician's perspective. I went through: - multivariable calculus from Spivak, - real analysis from Pugh, - differential equations from Hirsh/Smale/Devaney (mostly focusing on linear system, existence & uniqueness, nonlinear...

I need a good book, or in other words a book and it's solution manual if available on line - in classical physics. Some Lagrange, Hamiltonian exercises, with good explanation. Thanks in advance.

This post moved from "Nick Herbert's proof?" https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=589134 at the request of the OP. .. Effects without a cause in Herbert's experiment? I presume that you believe that some quantum events have no cause; not classical effects? So I would...

Hi folks. I'm wondering who does a good job of explaining this limit, preferably with a good set of examples. It doesn't need to be too basic, but it'd be nice if it went through the phase space stuff a little (I get the impression that my grad prof didn't do a great job with some details based...

This is to clarify Landau's treatment of polarization in his classical fields book. Say we have a monochromatic plane wave \mathbf{E}=\mathbf{E_0}e^{i(\mathbf{k} \cdot \mathbf{r} - \omega t)} and we want to make a vector \mathbf{b}=\mathbf{b_1}+i\mathbf{b_2} where...

I came across a discussion on net recently, where projectile motion was solved using the quantum mechanical approach. http://www.physics.csbsju.edu/QM/fall.14.html"][/PLAIN] I have already seen solution of the vibrations in string using quantum mechanics. I want to ask can i use quantum...

In the classical view of the electron, would the electron "fall" into the nucleus? I'm not asking why the electron doesn't fall into the nucleus. I know this is explained by quantum mechanics. But in class the other day, my professor said that treating the electron as a classical particle...

Hi Consider a small system A which is described by quantum mechanics. A large system B is surrounding A and this large system is described by classical physics. What kind of interactions has the system B to the small qm system? Compared to B is A very small so I guess one can neglect...

As you know,a pure sine wave extends infinitely in both directions and a wave which is the composition of some different frequencies,has a limited extent.Does it mean that such a wave is a pulse moving in space or it has limited range?(I know its crazy to talk about the range of light,but I've...

Hey guys, I'm an electrical engineering student with a strong interest in physics. I would like to work through classical mechanics, E&M, and thermodynamics books. I'm not sure if there's another subject that is usually covered in classical physics (perhaps waves/optics?) but if so, I'd like...

Hello. What's the best edition of Jackson's Classical Electrodynamics? Thank you.

Hey, http://img822.imageshack.us/img822/407/25944209.jpg \begin{align} & \frac{m{{v}^{2}}}{r}=\frac{Z{{e}^{2}}}{4\pi {{\varepsilon }_{0}}{{r}^{2}}} \\ & L=\frac{Z{{e}^{2}}}{4\pi {{\varepsilon }_{0}}v} \\ \end{align} and I know by using the v derived using Bohr's equations it will give...

Nowadays people usually consider PDEs in weak formulations only, so I have a hard time finding statements about the existence of classical solutions of the Poisson equation with mixed Dirichlet-Neumann boundary conditions. Maybe someone here can help me and point to a book or article where I...

Do you consider "photon" as belonging to classical physics or non-classical physics? When Einstein discovered the photoelectric effect and conjectured light was composed of photons. He didn't say it in the context of quantum field theory where the photon is excitation of the electromagnetic...

There are tons of interpretations of quantum mechanics, but I'm unaware of any that are 'classical' as in being local, having realism and determinism. There is Bells famous work proving that that can't be true for certain aspects of quantum mechanics, but why aren't there any classical...

This question is going to be a bit vague and might lead to nowhere, but still I'll take the risk and try to ask it here. I know in general how to quantize a field, and from the quantized field one gets the quantized Hamitonian thus the time-evolution operator. However, I wonder what're the...

At a classical physics level, physically big equates to big mass, but at the sub-atomic level, small seems to equate to big mass i.e. (short wavelength big mass relationship. "momentum=h/wavelength"). Any ideas why there is this complete contrast?

Check out this pdf on this website. No signing up or anything, It took me the better half of today to do this. Anyways, this might be well known for people above my basic physics knowledge, but I came up with this all by myself knowing a few simple equations...

When I ask for differences I am not meaning mathematical ones since that it is obvious: We have a phenomenon p, p can be described by Galilean Relativity (GR) and by Einsten Relativity (ER). ER(p)!=GR(p) The math expression that describes this phenomenon is different. Then the doppler...

I hope this is in the right sub forum, but my question is simple. What type of mindset is required to complete problems in a 2nd year classical mechanics course. Comparing a typical classical mechanics problem to a 1st year physics problem, they are both completely different. I find that a...

Is classical mechanics deterministic? If so, please explain this. Suppose we collide two bodies with each other. Assuming they are point particles and using conservation of energy and momentum this gives us a set of equations. Unfortunately these aren't enough to predict their...