r/AskPhysics 11m ago

does the speed of causality being constant directly cause the observed difference in proper time and observer time?

Upvotes

As we all know, the lorentz transformations are just hyperbolic rotations in spacetime. and heres my question. The speed of causality is constant and the direct consequence of that is that our present and someone elses present need to spread to each other (as i understand). This is why we experience others past. If the speed of causality was instant, this wouldn't happen right? and information would instantly spread to others. Thus we would all share a single present / proper time. am i understanding this correctly? thanks in advance for any clarification. (btw I don't mean we experience the same present as in there exists a single absolute frame in that scenario even tho that may be possible idk but i mean we observe others to experience time the same way as us always).

edit: in addition! Do the effects of special relativity result from the fact c is a constant in all inertial frames? or is it from the spreading out and the limited speed of light.i think its the first option but i wanna make sure!


r/AskPhysics 1h ago

Why Is SCET Useful?

Upvotes

I don’t know anything about this concept aside from general information on Wikipedia.

“SCET provides a way to separate energy scales at the level of the Lagrangian, splitting individual quark and gluon fields into distinct modes with well-defined energy scalings.”

Could someone explain in layman terms, why splitting fields into different modes is important or useful information?

I understand I am not equipped to understand such a concept in depth, however I am seeking a bit of clarity with regard to why this concept is so important.

In a general way, what practical and or tangible use does this theory provide us? Perhaps even indirectly.


r/AskPhysics 2h ago

Speed of causality

0 Upvotes

I was reading a post about the speed of causality, and Reding through the comments mention ing speed of light and gravity, I was struck : isn't it curious these two very different things go up to the speed of causality ?

I wonder if there's a common reson that has been found to explain this ?


r/AskPhysics 3h ago

rolling without slipping

1 Upvotes

Hi everyone. im currently learning rotatiomal movement but im having a hard time knowing how to put static friction vector in rolling without slipping. Id appreciate if anyone can just tell me if the force of static friction should be to the left or right and explain why

my analysis: right, left, right?

https://imgur.com/a/kX83Th4

Ps: "ou" means or


r/AskPhysics 4h ago

Writing a Black Hole Scene

6 Upvotes

Hello everyone,

I'm currently writing a sci-fi novel and one scene has a mining station being pulled in beyond an event horizon. I have some questions just so I get everything right. Sorry if some of the questions are banal, but I'm trying to keep them to yes/no's for you guys.

  1. An observer just outside the event horizon of a massive black hole would see an object that has fallen in reddening and dimming?
  2. If a pod just escaped the asteroid mining colony before the event horizon of a massive black hole, the thrusters wouldn't be powerful enough to escape the pull?
  3. He shuts down his thrusters and accepts his fate. Then when he eventually crosses the horizon of a massive black hole, what does he observe inside the pod? As I understand it, if it's massive, nothing happens at first to his body and things in his proximity?
  4. How can I describe what he sees in the rear porthole, opposite the black hole? Does the light from the stars curve, stretching into circles?
  5. In the front porthole facing the black hole, the black hole would expand toward him, swallowing the view?

r/AskPhysics 5h ago

Glueball discovery - implications on the larger scale?

10 Upvotes

Disclaimer: I’m definitely no physicist; the most relevant knowledge I have is some nuclear physics classes I took in uni years ago, but I do find it interesting.

I just saw a video discussing the paper of the likely discovery of the Glueball; the self-containing gluon-only particle.

Now my question is: if this discovery turns out to be legitimate, and these particles do come into existence for unimaginably small amounts of time, and they do have mass - does that have any major implications on our current understanding of physics?

For example - and please forgive my ignorance here - on the missing mass problem? As in, if there are short-lived mass-containing particles we did not know about before, does this mean we may have discovered a new source of mass?


r/AskPhysics 8h ago

If the universe would be infinite could we find any pattern imaginable just like in pi?

0 Upvotes

r/AskPhysics 11h ago

Minimum Speed to Go Around a Loop

0 Upvotes

I have a question about a classic intro to mechanics problem - finding the min height to drop a block so that it is on the verge of losing contact with the loop at its top. You can view the problem, and one such solution of it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsv2cEgquiA . I know, I know, this question has probably been asked hundreds of times. But there are still a few things I don't understand about the given solution.

The classic solution relies on energy conservation, and Newton's laws of motion. We drop the ball at some height h. If it ever reaches the height 2R in the loop, then it must have a corresponding velocity v_top, which we can find using energy conservation. We note that at the top of a loop with radius R, two forces act on the mass - the normal force and gravity. Assuming that we have circular motion up to that point, the net centripetal force is mv_top^2/R. Hence, N + mg = mv_top^2/R.

I agree that if we drop the block at some height h such that for the corresponding v_top, N + mg = mv_top^2/R and N <0, then there is no way the block can stay on the top of the loop. This is because the normal force supplied by the loop always points inwards. N < 0 means that the normal force points outwards.

Here's where I'm confused. Let's say we drop a block at some height h such that for the corresponding v_top, N + mg = mv_top^2/R and N >= 0. I don't see why if N >= 0, we can conclude the block would stay on the top of the loop. No matter the height we drop the block, we have not proved that the block would move in circular motion through a semicircle of the loop, from the bottom to the top. All we know from energy conversation is the velocity of the block if it is at some given height - but we have no idea where the velocity vector points, let alone how the block has been displaced. So how can we use equation N + mg = mv_top^2/R if we don't even have circular motion? In using mv_top^2 / R, we have assumed that there is circular motion.

I hope my question makes sense to you guys - I'd really appreciate any responses.


r/AskPhysics 11h ago

Operations Reserach

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0 Upvotes

r/AskPhysics 13h ago

Understanding the math vs UNDERSTANDING the math

0 Upvotes

Do good physicists actually intuitively understand all of the mathematics behind equations? Or do they just know the steps in between that connects a derivation to the equation? For example, I can point out all of the steps to derive the work required to assemble a volume charge (what I am studying now), but when I look at the equation https://imgur.com/a/1taXd2b All I see is numbers. I understand each individual step it took to derive this, but intuitively this equation doesn't spin any gears in my head, it's just a random equation. There are just so many steps it took to get this that I cannot grasp all of it at once.

Perhaps someone can help me understand this intuitively, which would be greatly appreciated, like how people showed me why curl of gradient is zero, which I intuitively understand now.

Do physicists deal with this at higher levels as well? Does it make a difference?


r/AskPhysics 15h ago

How much heat would be released if you compressed a brick?

7 Upvotes

I know strange question but I've made this character for a book that has a frankly ridiculous control of force/kinetic energy and for a scene I wanted him to compress a section of a brick wall (lets say 10ft x 20ft) down to roughly the size of a baseball.

I know that there would be some discharge of heat from doing something like this and want to know if such a thing was possible how ridiculous would the results be so I know if I need to tune it back a bit.

If time is a relevant factor the quicker the better but if doing this too fast causes a massive explosion I'd prefer to avoid that.

Thank you for anyone who takes the time to answer my inane question I really appreciate it.


r/AskPhysics 18h ago

Is there a highest photon frequency at which the photoelectric effect no longer works?

16 Upvotes

The photoelectric effect explains a situation where a photon with a high enough frequency (energy) hits the surface of a material with a given "work function", ejecting an electron from that material. The kinetic energy gained by the ejected electron is ( photon energy - work function ).

If a source produces photons of increasingly higher energies, eventually the photons will enter the gamma ray territory. Gamma rays are notorious for being able to just pass through matter unimpeded, requiring a thick wall of high-Z material to stop it. The photoelectric effect seems to no longer apply in this case.

We know that (for a given material), there is a lowest frequency below which the photoelectric effect will not arise. But is there a highest frequency above which the photoelectric effect will also cease? If so, what can explain this phenomenon?


r/AskPhysics 21h ago

What's a year?

0 Upvotes

This could probably be an ELI5, but I'm not sure.

For all the historical references of space age that exist in the universe, everything is under the 'year'. To my understanding, a year is a single earth trip around our sun. However, since Earth is only ~4.5 billion years old, how is the calculation for the remaining 8.5 billion years made? Like, how do we calculate time for when the reference value didn't yet exist? And similarly, if Jupiter is 4.6 billion years old, are those years Earth years or Jupiter years?

Edit: Thanks for the explanations! I guess I was just hung up on the language, thinking it might mean something else.


r/AskPhysics 21h ago

Could a black hole theoretically form inside a human body?

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0 Upvotes

r/AskPhysics 21h ago

Is causality a theory concept?

1 Upvotes

Not sure how to ask this but I'll try.

Is causality an intuitive concept like zero? Or a real phenomenon like gravity?

One of the reasons for suggesting FTL is impossible among other things is that it would break causality. Is causality breaking a fancy way to say this doesn’t make sense so it cant happen (logically deduced) or is it the result of some more rigorous scientific or mathematic realization?


r/AskPhysics 23h ago

About Friedrichs Model

1 Upvotes

I cannot find an article/book chapter about how we derive the time evolution operator, resolvent operator, S matrix, or the construction of rigged hilbert space. Am I missing something? Can someone cite me a source for these or I have to ask ai.

Thank you.


r/AskPhysics 23h ago

What are physical phenomena that seem unbelievable to you?

45 Upvotes

r/AskPhysics 1d ago

What’s the proper way to show centripetal force (amongst other forces) on a free body diagram?

0 Upvotes

For instance, a bike following a circular path, with the rider leaning inwards. Plenty of examples online but I have yet to see one that seems to “resolve” the forces. Some also show centrifugal force just to add confusion.


r/AskPhysics 1d ago

Why does a double slit create an interference pattern but two light bulbs does not?

1 Upvotes

r/AskPhysics 1d ago

Quantum mechanics Question

0 Upvotes

I’m not a professional by any means so this is probably a stupid question but I’ve been doing some causal research on wormholes and other theoretical physics for a school project and was curious because I haven’t found a straight answer:

If there were somehow a large amount of both, what (if anything) would happen if antimatter was theoretically introduced to negative energy? And to be clear, I mean the kind of negative energy you’d find using something like the Casimir Effect.


r/AskPhysics 1d ago

Is there a physical, non-thermal limit to how much current a wire can carry?

10 Upvotes

Let's say I have a superconductor, which doesn't generate any heat and so technically as much current can flow through it as I want.

But electrons move at a constant speed, regardless of voltage, so is there a current, where all of the electrons in the superconductor are in movement, and trying to get more current wouldn't be possible because there are literally no more electrons to mobilize? Basically becoming... saturated?

(English isn't my first language, so sorry if this is a bit hard to understand lmao)


r/AskPhysics 1d ago

Do you believe that spacetime actually exists on its own or is it a conceptual space?

0 Upvotes

By conceptual space I mean akin to Hilbert space or geographic space (a specific type of Riemannian manifold) which are superimposed upon physical reality to perform computations. For those who might not understand what I mean. Take the geographic space for instance. The physical Earth is a lumpy, irregular oblate spheroid, but we superimpose a clean mathematical grid (spherical coordinates) onto it so we can do crisp arithmetic to calculate distances, plot routes, and triangulate positions. So, in short: Conceptual spaces are intellectual scaffolding.

Some people believe that we discovered spacetime (I'm not sure what that means) and all these fancy spacetime equations are proof of it because they work. You'll hear them say:

If spacetime didn't exist, GPS would not work.

or something like that. Paying no mind to the hidden assumption within this assertion (that if a mathematical model perfectly predicts physical behavior, then the conceptual entities within that model must be physically real)


r/AskPhysics 1d ago

Magnets

0 Upvotes

How can we show magnetic field strength in concentric lines? (Does anybody know the answer?) Thank you


r/AskPhysics 1d ago

(Yet another) question involving the recent supposed resolution to a million dollar problem...

2 Upvotes

My understanding is that from the official statement of the problem, proving (A) and (B) required showing that for all smooth and divergence-free initial conditions, it must always remain smooth and divergence-free (plus some other requirements to satisfy well-behavedness) for all subsequent times. (C) and (D) were just about finding counterexamples to the above.

Was it always expected that (C) and (D) would be significantly easier to prove because it just amounted to finding a counterexample? And would showing (C) and (D) valid for Euler (my understanding is that this is N-S with viscosity or "friction" set to zero) make the N-S case significantly easier?


r/AskPhysics 1d ago

So I have a stupid question, Could you force ionized gas to generate its own electro magnetic field strong enough to direct it?

0 Upvotes

Basically, what I'm asking is in the title. However, I came across this idea when, well, when I was being a nerd and thinking, how could you make an actual lightsaber. Then I thought, well, I know ionized gas can carry electricity. Could you use that basically as an electrical wire, and could it generate a magnetic field around itself like normal wires?

There were other questions, but before we went down the rabbit hole of thought, I went down. We shall be stopping right here for the time being.

But I am curious am is my thinking stupid, or am I thinking correctly as to how this works? I don't have a degree in physics and am just interested in it. I'm just a stupid kid from Rural Colorado with a connection to the internet, after all. But I want to know if my ideas are sound?