Yahoo Answers is shutting down on 4 May 2021 (Eastern Time) and the Yahoo Answers website is now in read-only mode. There will be no changes to other Yahoo properties or services, or your Yahoo account. You can find more information about the Yahoo Answers shutdown and how to download your data on this help page.

Lv 2824 points

Player

Favourite answers42%
Answers102
  • How do blazed reflection gratings affect the intensity distribution but not the location of the orders?

    I think I may be confused by the affect of the incident angle, and the high school rule that the angle of incidence is always equal to the angle of reflection.

    I am also having trouble with how a blazed grating is a diffraction grating at all if all surfaces are reflective.

    3 AnswersPhysics8 years ago
  • Fabry Perot Interferometer question?

    There is a Fabry Perot Interferometer where F = 9.622 and R = mF = lambda/change in lambda and phase difference = 2kdcostheta.

    What is the minimum distance that the plates have to be separated by to resolve the two spectral lines of hydrogen where lambda = 656.3nm and change in lambda = 0.0136 nm?

    I found d(min) = 1.719*10^-10m where m = 5015.134 but this only holds if the phase difference is equal to m*lambda... Is this correct?

    1 AnswerPhysics8 years ago
  • Thermodynamics Question: Reversible Engines?

    How does the efficiency of a reversible heat engine implies the existence of an absolute temperature scale.

    where efficiency = 1 - Q_c/Q_h

    1 AnswerPhysics8 years ago
  • Two interpretations of normal acceleration for a rotating rigid body?

    Say a rigid body is rotating around a point in space and it is big enough that it contains two points, A and B, where A is further away from the center of rotation and B is closer. Does the normal acceleration differ between the two points?

    Because it is a rigid body and B and A stay a fixed distance apart I think that their normal accelerations should be equal. However, consider the the equation of motion; a = omega^2*r, where a is the normal acceleration, omega is the angular velocity and r is the radius. Omega is constant and r is different between A and B so the acceleration should be different!

    Which interpretation is correct, and where did my logic go wrong?

    2 AnswersPhysics8 years ago
  • Could an object have angular velocity in a 2D universe?

    Since the angular velocity vector is perpendicular to the plane of rotation doesn't the existence of rotation imply the existence of another dimension? Or is the vector just used theoretically? If that is the case, are there any instances in physics/mechanics where we consider a theoretical vector in a 4th dimension to solve problems?

    3 AnswersPhysics8 years ago
  • Bernoulli's equation question?

    A vertical cylindrical tank of cross-sectional area A1 is open to the air at the top and contains water to a depth h0. A worker accidentally pokes a hole of area A2 in the bottom of the tank.

    Derive an equation for the depth h of the water as a function of time t after the hole is poked.

    Express your answer in terms of the variables A1,A2,h0 and appropriate constants.

    I have derived the equation v1 = sqrt(2*g*h/((A1/A2)^2-1)) but I don't know where to go from there. Is it solvable algebraically?

    1 AnswerPhysics9 years ago
  • Schrodinger's Equation Question?

    If in a stationary state and magnetic quantum number m, the function f(phi) representing the phi component of Schrodinger's equation is proportional to e^i*m*(phi).

    How does this relate to the fact that the probability distribution for a hydrogen atom, are rotationally symmetric around the z-axis (i.e. independent of phi)?

    I get that the equation must be continuous so that e^i*m*phi = e^i*m*(phi + 2*pi) and that this wave function will differ from the normalized probability distribution function but I can't seem to put the two together to get a sensible answer.

    Any ideas would be good even if you are not sure what the answer is.

    3 AnswersPhysics9 years ago