dr neutrino from may 1996

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You typed: 96/. The questions that match:

Date: 96/05/13

Question 3

Lost rainbows.. I live in Virginia and have seen rainbows twice this lasty year which are in the wrong place in the sky with respect to the sun.

Rainbows should be circular arcs whose center lies on a line from the sun (behind you) through you and continuing onward into the earth. When I

was in RVN flying in choppers, through monsoon weather, with water vapors below you as well, I could see the entire rainbow circle. Of course,

when groundbound, you have no water vapor below you and see only the upper portion of the arc. It appears to be about 45 degrees or so away

from the receding locus line. The two situations I mentioned involved seeing rainbows while facing the direction of the sun and at about 30 to 40degrees away from the sun. I first noticed them when backdropped against white clouds and then saw the entire arc. I have never before seen such

rainbows. Could this be due to another vapor other than water in the atmosphere causing a different refraction angle?

And the Answer to question 3 is: (Click here to give a new answer )

Ice crystals in the upper atmosphere refracting the light so you see the light in the cone.

From: [email protected]......... Raindrops actually create rainbows at all kinds of crazy angles, but only two of them are fairly bright (as inDOUBLE rainbows). Maybe you were seeing one of the other angles of bow. Also rainbows are created only by droplets, such as rain, clouds, fog,

etc. Vapor is not visible.

Date: 96/05/13

Question 4

Foucalt's Pendulum I can understand how, standing on the north pole and swinging a pendulum, it would precess 360 degrees in a day's time. Is it

possible to explain to me without equations, how it reacts at the equator and points in between, and if the initial conditions (direction of first

displacement) have an impact. Am so glad to see you up on the web. I have often wondered about this and hope to have it clearly and finally

explained.


From: [email protected]......... The important point to note is that the pendulum does not precess. The pendulum swings in the SAME plane

relative to an independent reference point ie a distant, star, as the Earth rotates beneath it. Hence at the equator, where the Earth's spin axis and

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distribution of pressure that increases with distance from the center. Each leaf particle thus experiences a larger pressure on its outer side than on

its inner side. The net inward force drives each particle toward the center. Try stirring your goldfish bowl and observe the fish being driven toward

the center.

Date: 96/05/13

Question 7

From: ........... I want to know how to pronounce the word "quark". Should I say qw-are-k or qu-awe-k ? This problem is keeping me awake at night,

so I hope you can give me a definite answer.


From: ......... ....ask James Joyce! It's from a line in `Finnegan's Wake' and is supposed to rhyme with `Mark' (`...three quarks for Mister Mark' I

recall....giving Gell-Mann et al their inspiration). The question then becomes `Is it pronounced Mark or Mork?'

From: ......... I find it rather hard to believe that any particle physicist has read anything else but `Lord of the Rings' or a D&D manual - let alone

Finnegan's Wake! Does anyone know if G-M actually read it?

From: ......... Hawking says: ``The word _quark_ is supposed to be pronounced like _quart_, but with a `k' at the end instead of a `t', but is usuallypronounced to rhyme with _lark_.''

From: [email protected]......... Well . . . as James Joyce was Irish, perhaps he did pronounce the word "quart" like "lark"????

From: [email protected]......... The exact quote from _Finnegan's Wake_ is "Three quarks for Muster Mark," not *Mister*, but *Muster*.

Joyce was noted for his difficulty with spelling. :) As to the observation that physicists do not read such literature, I would point out that, while that

might be true today, this term was coined way back in 1961, when there weren't time-wasting activities like the World-Wide Web. The "top quark"

was identified as "truth", which was the subject of another answer here; so, in contradiction to that answer, there is, after all, "truth" in science!

From: ......... So long as it doesn't keep you aw-awe-ke at night.

Date: 96/05/13

Question 8

From: [email protected]........... Does anyone know of an on-line database containing thermodynamic data ?


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From: ......... Dr Neutrino doesn't have this info to hand, or a free hand to type it all in! Sorry, you'll have to stick to the printed tables for now...

From: ......... The Thermal Connection has some thermal properties http://www.csn.net:80/~takinfo i don't think they have the JANNAF tables, but i

haven't looked around that much. It's worth a try.

From: ......... it depends how drunk you are and wether you have two heads or just the one!!!:)

Date: 96/05/13

Question 9

From: [email protected]........... First law of thremodynamics in a closed system : dq = du + pdv why not : dq = du + vdp


From: ......... Because changing the volume at fixed pressure involves a force moving through a distance, while changing the pressure at fixed

volume does not.

From: [email protected]......... You should probably note that this law, in the form you have given is for ideal gasses. In general the law

is dQ = dE + dW, you know Q=heat E=energy and W=work. For the gas, the change in work is PdV, the force acting over a displacement, not VdP.

From: [email protected]......... well, first let us make understand 2 variales related. about .. dp = du + pdv .. has 3 variables. so,

in basic basic calculus, u must make one constant. in this equation, P (pressure) is constant. so, it's not differentiated. however, in 1st law of

thermodynamic ( p = u+w ). u can write them in 2 pattern that are dp = du+pdv or dp = du+vdp. it's depend on what variable does u make it

constant.

Date: 96/05/13

Question 12

From: [email protected]........... What are there two daily high tides instead of one? Shouldn't there be just one high tide, under or near the

position of the moon as the earth rotates on its axis?



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From: Dr antineutrino......... Think of it this way...the pull of the moon on the water nearest to it is stronger than the pull on the solid earth, so there

is the first tide, but the pull on the solid earth is stronger than the pull on the water on the far side of the earth, so there is another tide

approximately 12 hours later. (A little less than 12 hours, since the moon is moving round the earth.)

From: [email protected]......... I think Dr. antineutrino means a little *more* than 12 hours. Anyway, it isn't always true. In the Solant Firth

there are four tides a day and at some places known as nodal points there is no tidal rise and fall at all. An example can be found on the west sideof Kintyre in Scotland but nearby there are fierce currents. (I'm just being awkward).

Date: 96/05/13

Question 13

From: [email protected]........... Are the elements in the hypothetical primordial nebula that formed our solar system supposed to havemixed by convection currents or some other process ?


From: [email protected]......... An Astrophysical colleague tells me that... * interstellar gas is mixed by -turbulence-, not by convection *

some material arrives at solar nebula in form of -solid- grains * evidence from meteorites that some of these grains are never vaporized, so they

remain unmixed. Hope that helps.

Date: 96/05/13

Question 15

From: [email protected]........... What is the distance from Earth to its Moon at Apogee and Perigee.


From: [email protected]......... Perigee (minimum distance): 221,463 miles. Sorry about the non-S.I. units, but the source of this datum is

"The Universal Map of Outer Space," Rand McNally & Co., U.S.A., 1958. (Conversion: 1 mile ~ 1,000 paces.)

Date: 96/05/13

Question 16


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From: ........... In a recent edition of the New Scientist it was proposed that men's brains work in a different way from women's. In the opinion of the

collective brilliant minds gathered around this open forum could the same be said to be true of brains that are solving problems in the different

sciences, that they are either coordinating their logic in different ways or that it is familiarity with particular sets of problems that enables one to

seek an effective solution to a new puzzle?


Date: 96/05/13

Question 19

From: [email protected]........... After a little thought, I came to the conclusion that under special relativity a gas (in a container possibly)travelling at near-light speed would be observed to have a higher temperature than that observed by an observer in the gas frame. Would this result

hold under general relativity if the path were non-linear? If so, what would be observed if a container of gas were undergoing circular motion

around the `inertial` observer at near light speeds? What would happen if a conducting rod were connected between center point held at the same

temperature as the gas initially and the gas? Would any form of temperature gradient be observed?


Date: 96/05/13

Question 20

From: [email protected]........... Taking into consideration Godels incompletness theorem which states that in any axiomatic system there

will always be statements that are neither provable or unprovable Example S is the set of all sets that do not contain themselves Is it possible for a

non-trivial computer program which is, an axiomatic system by its very definition, to be proved as correct. Simon Nee


From: [email protected]......... No. This is Turing's halting problem is disguise. If it were possible to prove a computer program correct then it would,

by definition, be possible to write a computer program to prove a computer program correct. This cannot be done and is the Halting Problem in a

nut-shell.

Date: 96/05/13


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per-meter is still strong enough to ionize a low pressure gas. Wouldn't plasma balls be neat in a low-pressure room? No glass sphere needed!

Date: 96/12/04

Question 26

From: [email protected]........... I need to know some basic theory about the "Jackobs Ladder". Any information will be helpfull. Thanks in

Advance


From: Dr Z......... The only Jacob's Ladder I know is the flight of steps down the steep hill coming into the town of Cheddar in Somerset. (Where

the cheese comes from originally, for the sake of our non-West-Country readers.) Perhaps you could say some more about your Jackob's ladder, so

we know what branch of physics to think about ?

From: [email protected]......... The ladder uses 3 basic ideas. The first is that high voltages can ionizes the air. The second is that ionized air can

form a plasma arc. The third is that hot air rises. Thus, causing the plasma arc to rise to the top of the ladder. The shape of the ladder is an

important feature. The bottom of the ladder has the conductors close, making the plasma arc easier to start. Once the channel has started the

conductors can be seperated more and more with a bit more air ionizing as the arc rises. When it reaches the top the ionized air floats above the

conductor and the circuit is broken, making the ladder start over again.

From: [email protected]

Try this web site for specific directions: http://www.eskimo.com/~billb/amasci.html#ask David Winsemius, MD. Do not try to build one unless you

are willing to follow the safety precautions.

From: Wes Dennison

I have a Jacob's Ladder in my classroom built as a science project by a student from a line tranformer. II didn't realize ot was plugged in one day

and grabbed the antennae to adjust them. It knocked me on the floor! If you build one, be careful.

Date: 96/05/13

Question 27

From: [email protected]........... What would happen to the capacitance of a parallel plate capacitor if a dielectric of metal were inserted between the

two plates, but not touching either plate? | *** | | *** | ------| *** |------ plate 2 plate | *** | 1 | *** | M E T A L Thanks for any input to thisproblem.

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From: Dr Z......... Well, if it's a metal, it isn't a dielectric. So it looks like two capacitors in series, with the two little gaps forming the capacitors.

From: ......... inversely proportional to the square root of it's initial velocity times it's density.

From: ......... Look it up.

Date: 96/05/13

Question 28

From: ........... How does one read a list of archived questions. Each time I try to do so, the system merely invites me to enter the number of one ofthem for me to answer. [email protected] password is ******


From: Dr. N.......... Hi ...try mailing Dr N. in person to discuss this problem you can reach him via his mate at [email protected] He will try to

solve your problem for you.

Date: 96/05/13

Question 29

From: ........... situation, the Van de Graaff generates high voltages. Q: Explain why there is an "electric wind"?


Date: 96/05/13

Question 30

From: [email protected]........... how can the engineers first year noted be accessed


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From: [email protected]......... Relativistic contraction occurs in the direction of the object's velocity in the observer's frame. It does not depend in

any way on the position of the object or the observer. What the observer would actually *see* combines the effects of this contraction with others

due to the transit time of light signals, and is for large objects a complicated distortion of their real shape ( i.e. their shape in their own rest frames)

Date: 96/05/13

Question 37

From: [email protected]........... Dear Dr. Neutrino, I wonder if you could give me any suggestion on where to study graduate/Ph.d. studies in

physics at departments with a very good Ph.d. program ("english-speaking- institute"). My special interests are heavy ion physics and astrophysics.

My postal adress is: John Oystein Haarsaker N-7240 FILLAN NORWAY e-mail: [email protected] Yours faithfully, John Oystein Haarsaker


From: Will Lang......... Well..I don't know about heavy ion physics, but we're certainly looking for additions to our ever-expanding astrophysics

group here at Bristol. It depends what TYPE of astrophysics you want to do..it's a rather large field. Here we do mainly faint galaxy searches,

galactic radioastronomy, masers, and various X-ray stuff. Elsewhere in the UK, most of the larger `research universities' do astronomy in one form

or another. You might try Cambridge, Jodrell Bank, Durham, Oxford, Edinburgh and the like.

Date: 96/05/13

Question 39

From: ........... I saw on the news last night that American scientists have made a - human - heart. Is it likely within the next decade that a

replacement human eye could be created


From: [email protected]......... geez, that'd be tough. the heart's pretty much just a machine compared to the eye. I would think that a

mechanical eye builder would need a very very good understanding of the brains functions. The optic nerver connection would be, well... let's just

say a nightmare. I say eye repair will advance, but i think it'll be a long time before totally replacing the retina and understanding the optical nerve

datastream. 'course i'm no doctor.......

Date: 96/05/13

Question 40

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Date: 96/05/13

Question 45

From: [email protected]........... can you give me a detailed explanation of the hydrogen atom in the quantum physical interpretation?


From: [email protected]......... The easiest way to think of this is to imagine the electron as a wave circling the nucleus. If we vary the radius of

the electron's orbit (increasing r corresponds to a higher energy) then only radii (ie energies) in which the circumference is a whole number of

wavelengths will permit a standing wave which is a 'real' electron energy state. For all other energies, the wave interferes with itself and cancels

itself out, so we get a discrete ie quantized set of energy states. This is a simplification, and the model is inappropriate for anything more complex

than atomic hydrogen, but it's basically what is going on.

Date: 96/05/13

Question 46

From: ........... How would a candle burn in a space-station orbiting around the earth?


From: ......... What an apparently silly question. I'm not sure that I understand why it has been asked.

From: The frog.......... Not that silly! The flame of a candle is vertical because it's lighter than air. In microgravity, I guess it would look different.

I'm not even sure it would burn at all, since the convection currents could not bring fresh air so easily to assure combustion.

From: [email protected]......... Funnily enough there was an article in "New Scientist" (U.K. answer to "Nature") explaining the effects of

burning in microgravity. Apparently it is possible for enough air/oxygen to *diffuse* into the reaction volume to sustain the combustion reaction.

Several experiments are supposed to have been done already by NASA, as they are worried that a flame could burn for hours like this and then go

bang. The article appeared in about April with a title like "Fires in space" or something. Any use to you?

Date: 96/05/13

Question 47

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neighbour, yet the train only moves a small way at a small speed. In the same way the wave of *movement* of the electrons travels at roughly the

speed of light, but the electrons themselves hardly move any distance or at anything like this velocity.

Date: 96/12/01

Question 50

From: [email protected]........... Approximately how far away are (i) the nearest solar system or star, (ii) the nearest galaxy, and (iii) the

nearest black hole? Any units will do!


From: ......... Nearest star (not includng the Sun!): Proxima Centauri 1.31 parsecs (1 pc =3x10^18cm) Nearest Galaxy (not including our own)difficult to sat really. There appear to be some little ones that are actually colliding with the Milky Way at the moment Nearest BH: Unknown (can't

see them unless they interact with something)

From: [email protected]......... My Rand-McNally "Universal Map of Outer Space" (copyright 1958) lists the distance to Andromeda galaxy

as 1,500,000 light years, and to Alpha Centauri as 4 light-years, 4 light-months, and 7 light-days. I don't believe they knew about black holes back

then. Sorry.

From:[email protected]

The nearest black hole is probably in the center of the Milky way (our galaxi ).It pulls us along with all matter in our galaxi and we will end

probably as super heavy particales very small nearly infinate.And then we will be ejected back to space from both sides of the center of the galaxi

as jets of cosmic radiation.Please visit http://www.geocities.com/capecanaveral/4470 for more details.

From: aardwolf

The material presented at this site referenced by "polymeir" is highly speculative and seems inconsistent with prevailing physics; see Q1758 for

some dissenting opinion on the material presented there.

Date: 96/05/13

Question 52

From: [email protected]........... Why does a deuterium atom require binding energy if there is only one proton in the nucleus (i.e. it

doesn't require energy to overcome the static repulsion of the positive charges)?


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Date: 96/05/13

Question 55

From: [email protected]........... Dr, Dr, I am looking for information involving the physics behind the transfer of data across this lovely

Internet. I would like to know how the data gets transfered at its most basic level, like if electrons are sent involving 1's and 0's or whatwavelengths are involved in the transfer just over something like a T1 line or even how the data in an Ethernet network is transferred. The physics

behind this all is the most important wonder. Please reply to email well. Thank you for any help!


From: [email protected]......... it's magic as far as i'm concerned :) that's how planes fly too.......

From: ......... I imagine that if you surf the aforementioned global network, you will be able to find the necessary facts and, indeed, figures. Next.

Date: 96/05/13

Question 56

From: ........... A free neutron decays in 1000 seconds (average). Can you please explain in simple terms why the same neutron usually becomesstable when it is bound into a nucleus (e.g. a deuteron)?


From: ......... simple..you just have to look at the possible final.. states. They all have energy greater than the original.. nucleus (except where

beta-decay is possible).. You mention the deuteron. In this case the final state.. would be either two protons, an electron and a neutrino.. all as free

particles or, conceivably, a "nucleus".. composed of two protons, plus the electron and neutrino. For the first case just look up the masses. Even if

all.. the particles were at rest the energy would be too high. In the second case the "diproton" i.e. Helium-2 is not.. stble enough to exist even for aninstant. So the deuteron survives until "baryon decay".. intervenes :)

From: ......... magic

Date: 96/05/13

Question 57

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From: [email protected]........... What is the origin of the astronomical symbols for the planets of the solar system?


Date: 96/05/13

Question 61

From: [email protected]........... space seems to be quantized, what about time? Is there an explication for the origin of time or is it only rhe

forth component of the space-time vector?


From: munu......... Hmmm...."space seems to be quantized".. this could.. refer to ideas dating back at least to Bohm in the.. '50's that the world

exists on a microscopic lattice. People are always experimenting with such ideas, but.. as far as I know there is no widely accepted definite..

evidence in favour of them. Gauge theory calculations.. are carried out on a lattice, but this is only for.. computational purposes, not because the

world is.. really supposed to be like that. So lets hear more.. about your initial statement.

Date: 96/05/13

Question 62

From: [email protected]........... A point charge is initially at rest in a constant, uniform magnetic field. The magnetic field is then increased

(linearly or otherwise). What, if anything, does the point charge do?


From: munu......... The charge will start to move in the direction of the.. induced electric field produced by Faraday's Law. The.. direction and size

of this will depend on the overall.. setup. For example in a cyclotron-like situation the.. induced electric field lines are circular and the.. charge

starts to move around a circle centered at.. the middle of the cyclotron, unless it was at the.. centre to start with, in which case it doesn't move.

Date: 96/05/13

Question 63

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From: rjt.siva.brisac.uk......... Probably "one-constraint fit" If you are fitting a measured event where you know.. all the momenta and identities of

initial and final.. state particles, energy/momentum conservation gives.. you four constraints which must be satisfied. But if.. information is missing,

e.g. outgoing neutrinos.. the number of constraints is reduced.

From: ......... Is it a small bra?

From: [email protected]......... If there was never anything, then we could quantify this by inverse operation

Date: 96/05/13

Question 69

From: ........... I hope this is the correct forum for this question, since Royalty is close to a natural force. The question is: 'Of what possible use isThe House of Lords'?


From: munu......... A second chamber to review legislation, SOME of whose.. members are distinguished people from science, the arts.. etc ( life

peers) Unfortunately a lot of other members.. are simple the holders of heriditary peerages. What is wrong is the hereditary element, not the basic..

concept of a second chamber.

From: ......... Well I disagree entirely. The House of Lords is part of the reason why the word 'Britain' is preceeded by the word 'Great'. The Royal

family are marvellous, also, and I won't have a word against the Queen Mum. Let's have 10 Houses of Lords. A street of 'em even. Good on 'em, I

say.

Date: 96/05/13

Question 70

From: ........... What is a neutrino?


From: munu......... Long ago there were problems with beta decay. It.. seemed that energy and momentum were not conserved. Also the spins of the

particles involved were such.. that angular momentum could not be conserved. The Swiss physicist Wolfgang Pauli suggested that.. all theseproblems could be solved if a new.. particle with zero mass and the same spin as the.. electron were produced in beta decay. This particle has no

electrical charge or magnetic.. moment, and it very rarely interacts with other.. particles, so for many years there was no direct.. evidence for its

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existence. Eventually a few.. interctions were seen in a large detector near.. a nuclear reactor and the existence of the.. neutrino was fully

established. Since that time it has emerged that in addition.. to Pauli's original neutrino, associated with.. the electron, there are other kinds of

neutrino.. associated with the muon and the tau, which are.. heavy versions of the electron.

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