Degrees of freedom Definition and 162 Threads

For a molecule of water, I understand that there are 6 degrees of freedom for each of the three atoms within it; 3 translational and 3 due to the potential energy of the bonds. Is this at all affected when the water goes from solid to liquid or gas?

I understand that for H20 in solid form, each atom within the molecule has 6 degrees of freedom; 3 translational and 3 due to potential energy from bonds. Does the number of degrees of freedom change when water changes phase to a vapor?

Functions that "introduce" new degrees of freedom? OK, I realize this is a wacky question, so forgive me! BUT I was thinking about it the other day, and suppose I had a 2 dimensional space \Bbb{R}^{2}. Is there any function that generally exists as: f: \Bbb{R}^{n} \rightarrow \Bbb{R}^{n+1}? So...

When reading in the web about decoherence especially in popular articles I find very often explanations that point out the fact that the environment has a large number of degrees of freedom. It is unclear to me in which extent and in which aspects this is relevant for decoherence. My...

For the purposes of this thread LQG is defined in a pragmatic unrigorous way. Loop gravity is what loop gravitists do. That begs the question who are representative loop gravitists? Well it is a fuzzy set but I think we all have an idea who they are: people like Rovelli, Smolin, Freidel...

Angular momentum is a vector, so alegedly it has 3 degrees of freedom. It has never been formally told me, but I noticed angular momentum is taken as two separate magnitudes and not three. i.e. in quantum mechanics there's an operator for \bf{L}^2 and for L_z and this should be enough. My...

A 1.12 mol sample of an ideal diatomic gas at a pressure of 1.00 atm and temperature of 491 K undergoes a process in which its pressure increases linearly with temperature. The final temperature and pressure are 735 K and 1.39 atm. Assume 5 active degrees of freedom. Neither pressure nor...

Hi guys, Just a quick question. In my lecturers notes, he has mobility and degrees of freedom as different things. With a separate equation for each. However, when I went searching the net for some info because I couldn't understand the notes, I found it to be different. The sites I...

Can somebody help me out with this?? Calculate the no. of degrees of freedom of 10 cc oxygen gas at Normal temperature and pressure. This problem is from the kinetic theory of gases chapter.

The theory of quantum fields is very strange, indeed, I must admit. Usually in books they introduce a quantum field from the standpoint of a vibrating string in one dimension. Along the string are discrete points or masses that when one of which are disturbed a disturbance is created along the...

I was discussing with my friends that problem: If we have a cone, upside down, rotating with angular speed constant, how much degrees of freedom, the system has? Ok, I think that if the movement is restricted to rotate around a static axis, and the speed of rotation is constant, you don't...

When considering the three dimensions of space and our freedom of movement in that space, does our ability to change our state of motion (acceleration) imply an existence of a fourth dimension, ie. four space-time dimensions? Given three dimensions each mutually perpendicular, we can move...