Energy Definition and 999 Threads

I was enjoying my (very short) hot shower this morning and realized that the lovely warm water was flowing over my body (sorry - too much information) only once and then disappearing down the drain. This water - and what comes out of the washing machine, dishwasher etc. could be at a seriously...

Physical objects have well defined shapes, but does energy ever create well defined shapes or can it only take shape within matter?

Energy and mass are interdependent and electrons can manifest as particles and fields as do all other particles, but is it generally true that physical(classical) matter is a peculiar type of energy that can(for some reason? What?) manifest as physical objects?

Hello, in one of tasks of my liquid scintillation lab is to determine the average energy. You can see from the graph that data I obtained is similar to this one that I have a excel sheet data. X-axis is for beta particle energy from 0-156keV while y-axis counts of the particles. So according to...

Why the wheel moves? I intuitively think that it should move to right but I don't really understand why. When AB gets longer by x each end gets longer by x/2 so W goes to right and down. This will create torque and body will move. This explanation seems valid but I can't calculate anything and...

I am totally confused about the task. Any help will be nice. Thank you so much

My book says that emission spectra are produced when an electron in excited state jump from excited to lower energy states. It also states that solids and liquids produce continuous spectra and it depends upon temperature only (is this black body radiation?). I know, Electrons around a nucleus...

The slinky is designed to fully contract in 1 second. During this one second, the mass is weightless and move up at constant speed of 1m/s. After 1 second the mass gain 1m height in potential energy. Am I missing something?

Hello everyone. I have just complete an experiment calculating the speed of a muon. I got it to 2.6E8 m/s, however I know that they are created at close to speed of light to be able to get down to Earth's surface in their short lifespan. This speed could not have been its initial speed, as it...

for the first question, i thougth that 0,5 A is the answer? for the second question: i used the E =hc/λ to found the E. but i got a little confused which equations to find ∆E, since there's no ∆t. or should i search the momentum, then use the λ= h/p ?

It is known that constructive interference in one place must be compensated for by destructive interference in another. Take a simple Fabry Perot resonator for example. The interference occurring at both sides of the first mirror (assuming one incident electric field) compensate each other out...

I got curious about firearm ballistics and googled something similar to "bullet momentum vs kinetic energy". IIRC, momentum P = mv (checked); and kE = (mv^2)/2 (also checked). So I essentially wondered if it's worse to get hit by a bullet with greater kE than by one with lesser kE, presuming...

Mentors note: split from https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/energy-mass-equivalence.1003564/ How do you measure energy?

I have been analysing the power that a cyclist puts out during a standing start and the numbers don't seem to match the effort that is going in! Here's a real example: Cyclist (93kg incl bike) moves 15m from standing start in 4secs (average velocity 3.75m/s). Assuming a constant acceleration, of...

When we connect tungsten filament light bulb to the battery, filament becomes hot due to electrons losing kinetic energy in the electric field inside of conductor. Heat is eventually converted to electromagnetic radiation making light bulb shine. Light energy comes from flow of electrons and...

Hi, I'm a current senior in college, and am applying to grad. schools for fall 2022. I'm interested in high energy theory, and I have had some research experience in ads/cft correspondence, kaluza-klein theory, computational particle physics. However, I'm not certain as to which particular topic...

First I picked an arbitrary state ##|ϕ⟩=C_1|φ_1⟩+C_2|φ_2⟩+C_3|φ_3⟩## and went to use equation 1. Realizing my answer was a mess of constants and not getting me closer to a ground state energy, I abandoned that approach and went with equation two. I proceeded to calculate the following matrix...

[Mentors' note: This thread was split off from https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/system-potential-energy-and-nonconservative-forces.1009237/] This is not a particularly helpful way to think about things; For a general mechanical system, you usually split the specified forces into external...

I tried using the equations above, but I wasn't really able to come up with an intuitive explanation. From my understanding, the electric field vector only varies in the x-y plane while the magnetic field vector only varies in the z-y plane. Also, both vary sinusoidally and both reach extrema...

Hello, I am trying to get my head around the idea of nonconservative forces doing work and changing the potential energy of a system. First of all, forces acting on a system can be: a) internal and conservative b) internal and nonconservative (friction, pushes, pulls, thrust, etc.) c) external...

Hi everyone! I regularly use the forum to learn but never registered to post anything, as I have nothing to teach really… But today I have a question regarding the law of conservation of energy that I can’t find the answer to, and maybe someone will help me understand: (I’ve attached a drawing)...

Hello again. I don't believe there are rules about posting twice in a day. I'm not a student and I answer Physics questions as a hobby, but I've only just started learning, so please help me out. I'm answering IBDP Physics questions. Here's my thinking: KE is not a vector quantity, so it's...

Here's my attempt at solving it using Hess's Law. I get -1770kJ when I add up all the numbers. The correct answer is supposed to be -2484 kJ.

Quantum mechanically speaking when we split a wave in two the resulting waves must have a 90 degrees phase difference for energy to be conserved. Take the beamsplitter depicted in [1] for example. But the Fresnel equations state that the reflected wave should experience a phase shift of π when...

At the end of the measurement I made with a detector, I only have the energy and count values as in the attached excel file. How can I find the peak values with the data I have and calculate the efficiency?

Hi, I know from conservation of energy that ##E_i = E_f## Thus, ## M_h c^2 + binding energy = M_{he}c^2+ M_e c^2 + K = M_{he}c^2 + 0.5 MeV + 0.0186 MeV## If I'm right I have to find ##M_{he}c^2##, but something is missing in my understanding, since I don't see how to find that mass energy...

I'm having trouble putting the rest of the equations together, I believe I need the different from (0,0,0) to (1,0,0) and then (1,0,0) to (1,1,0) right? Then solve for x direction and y direction. What would I use for Wnc tho? I'm very confused.

please help me

At the equilibrium position all forces are equal to 0 (they balance). So, naturally we: mg - kd = 0 d = mg/k d = 0.356 m This is the correct answer, I believe. But I want to solve it using the energy equations because I am really trying to understand energy's connection to the rest of...

Hi, I have read some threads on this but I still have some confusion. 1) I get that work has to be done to produce a permanent bar magnet (work to align the dipole moments to give a net field, say in a solenoid/electromagnet) so we can say that the magnet is a store of magnetic potential...

A question to physicists: What sort of real world scenario / image would *best* depict the increase in gravitational potential energy in a radial field? Would a rocket traveling through the Earth's atmosphere suffice or are there better alternatives? This image would have to be relevant to the...

hi guys i am encountered with a question that is : two protons in a helium atom stand close together,approximately at a distance of 2 fm. what is the potential energy of this system ? i can understand the concepts that are potential of a particle or potentail of a object etc but can't...

Imagine that we have a transmitter of microwaves that radiates a linearly polarized wave whose E field is known to be parallel to the dipole direction. We wish to reflect as much energy as possible off the surface of a pond (having an index of refraction of 9.0). Find the necessary incident...

Hi I'm new to quantum mechanics, Looking for some help regarding a concept i am struggling to solve. I am curious if I had a cube of particles in a ground state and another cube with the same particle in a higher energy state. If I placed one upon another, is there anything in quantum mechanics...

In classical and continuum mechanics if we want to find equation of motion of the body we draw force diagram and apply Newton's 2nd law. In continuum mechanics, equation of motion actually refers to a special point of the body known as center of mass (COM) which can be proven by definition of...

Work - energy principle states that work done by net force acting on the body equals change in kinetic energy of the body. We are talking about continuum mechanics. This principle is usually introduced in mechanics of solid bodies. For us to describe the motion of the body, it is enough to know...

1)In my book , there is a definition of fermi energy as topmost filled level in the ground state of an N electron system. This definition holds only for absolute zero,right? If it is not absolute zero,fermi energy is the energy at which the probability of a state being occupied is 50 percent...

The Fermi energy Ef is defined as the energy of the topmost filled level in the ground state of the N electron system. Ground state is n=1 level. And in the ground state there can be only one orbital right? One orbital can have only up to 2 electrons. Does this mean that fermy energy is the...

On a long trip the photon goes, but it occupies a wavelength of space at any particular time. If the space between start and finish (inspection) is expanding all the way all the journey time, then most of the expansion has no effect on the photon. Like eg second tenth is section currently passed...

I tried to solve it by integrating force from 0 to L dF=dm.g where dm=λdx And then I multiplied it with velocity to get power because velocity is constant ∫(vdF)=v ∫(dF) But the book used integration to find work done and divided it by time for power My answer was λlgv(Option B) Giving...

Summary:: What does physics study? Other than matter/antimatter and energy what does physics study? And in what ways are matter and energy similar? Are there additional substances that physics measures?

Hi! So I know about the electron-photon interaction but what about photon-photon interaction? I mean, I do know there is a very small chance for them to interact, but how else do they transfer energy in order to get from Sun to Earth, for example? When it comes to sound waves I get it, for...

I have a magnet that will lift only 1 lb of steel with an electric lift. If I discharge a big capacitor into a 1000 turn coil with the magnet in the center of the coil it super charges the magnet it will lift 200 lbs for about 4 seconds. The magnet has a half life of about 4 second for about...

Work - Energy principle states that work of resultant force or sum of work of all forces acting on some system equals change in kinetic energy of the system. For inviscid fluid flowing in a pipe such theorem can be used to derive Bernoulli's equation because as fluid flows it is subjected to...

A free particle with coordinates as shown has kinetic energy ##T = \frac{1}{2}m\left(\dot r^2 + r^2\dot\theta^2 + r^2\sin^2\theta\dot\phi^2\right)## So we see ##T## depends on ##\theta##. Now suppose we rotate our coordinate system such that only one coordinate ##\theta## changes from...

Hi all, I have a system whereby, there are different aperture shapes which are: circle, triangle, square e.t.c. this apertures are all 300um in diameter. I will like to know if the encircled energy calculated for the different apertures after diffraction will be different due to different...

There is an optimum energy which gives the greatest probability of ionisation of a particular element. This is said to align with the wavelength of the electron being close to resonances in the atom. Looking at this in a different way as particles, would it be correct to say that the optimum...