Physics

In Physics, What We Don't Find Can Be Important Too

In all the hype surrounding the Large Hadron Collider during the last few years, it was easy to miss the fact that low energy physics was still accomplishing a lot- and that no one was sure what the LHC could really do because we didn't know what need ...

Article - Hank Campbell - Feb 15 2009 - 11:17am

LHC-- Besides the Higgs

The Higgs field isn't the only thing the LHC might unearth.  A while back Sean Carroll posted a great discussion of other possibilities including supersymmetry, dark matter and something not yet predicted.    ...

Blog Post - Jon Lederman - Feb 15 2009 - 11:23am

Thoughts About Theoretical vs. Applied Science

There is often an uncomfortable and artificial hierarchy amongst theorists and experimentalists.  Those exalting pure theory often forget that applied science is an art unto itself as is engineering.  There are many problems in applied science or engineeri ...

Blog Post - Jon Lederman - Feb 18 2009 - 4:20am

Relativistic Addition Of Velocities

Someone on this site recently posed the following thought experiment questioning the postulate of special relativity that no object can travel faster than the speed of light- c.  Imagine a one dimensional problem in which two travelers, move close to the s ...

Article - Jon Lederman - Feb 22 2009 - 12:48pm

Classical Gravity in Planck Units: Looking at a old equation from a new angle

A few months ago I did a bit of thinking about gravity from a different angle.  I asked the question... How would the equations of classical General Relativity look if Planck Units were used.  Let me make it clear I am not not talking about the Planck Scal ...

Blog Post - Hontas Farmer - Feb 23 2009 - 11:44am

If You See A UFO, It May Be A D&D Character Instead

In tales, legend and role-playing games, sprites are tiny creatures that cause lots of rascally hijinks- sometimes they even dance in the sky.   Scientists at Tel Aviv University say that some "sprites" are very real and they are zipping across t ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 23 2009 - 1:02pm

Carter Constant- A 40 Year-Old Einstein Mystery Gets Some Insight From Newton

The rotating black hole has been described as one of nature's most perfect objects.  As described by the Kerr solution of Einstein's gravitational field equations, its spacetime geometry is completely characterized by only two numbers — mass and ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 23 2009 - 7:15pm

Quantum Theory Lessons 5 and 6. Tensor Products and Entanglement.

This first video is where I explain Hilbert Space Tensor Products. I explained Hilbert spaces and operators in a previous video. The sound is not stellar so turn up the volume to the max, and you should be able to hear it. This is the last in my series of ...

Blog Post - Hontas Farmer - Mar 3 2009 - 8:44am

Hot Electrons In Carbon – A Graphite Semiconductor?

Nanomaterials like carbon possess unique properties, which have led to first applications in novel electronic devices and sensors. These materials are based on ordered, atomically thin layers of carbon atoms, for example in the form of a single layer as so ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 4 2009 - 1:31pm

Take That LHC: Fermi Scores Again In Discovering Rare Single Top Quark

There's no question that employees at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory have watched with some concern as the LHC got all the press about being the future of physics despite the fact it hadn't actually produced anything.    They have also qui ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 10 2009 - 3:47pm