Important Definition and 506 Threads

My syllabus doesn't include them in first physics course, and I am in engineering major. Should I try to practice them for myself or are they not very important?

Hi I'm a complete n00b at calculus (first day of the first year) so this question may appear a little...stupid. But I want to hammer into my head every little thing I hear in the lecture hall, so I might as well give it a go. Today the professor explained how jump discontinuities must be...

hi, i am a freshman and i really enjoy physics. With other homework like programming, biology, or english (i hate english) i seem to be aware of the time spent doing the problems and studying from the textbook, but when i do physics i loose track of time and i really enjoy it. I am pretty good...

Why is it important? I know it is a measure of the disorder of the system and the amount of possible outcomes. If it always increases, why should any chemist care about it?

How important is "falsification in Science"?What separates Physics from everyone else Many here are quite fascinated by Science, or at least I'd think that's why you signed up for PhysicsForums. One topic many are interested in is: What separates Physics from the other Sciences? Something...

IMPORTANT! ---- what is the geometric intepretation of the gradient vector? Assume the situation in which I have a slope, a component of a function dependent on x and y, which is at an angle to the xy plane. The gradient vector would be perpendicular to the tangent plane at the point in which i...

hi, i just started freshman year, and i am taking the standard intro physics class for physics majors', but i am only in calculus 1, and in the first day today, our prof already started with some basic kinematic questions that involved derivatives. (also second derivatives) I taught myself...

hi, i just started freshman year, and i am taking the standard intro physics classes for physics majors', but i am only in calculus 1, and in the first day today, our prof already started with some basic kinematic questions that involved derivatives. I taught myself derivatives over the...

What is the most important part of science? Math, Theories, Experiment, Etc...? I'll paraphrase what a friend's answer. "Process ... the rest of what you said changes -but the process above it all (which comes from how to think about things) is what determines the quality of reiteration and...

I am wondering how important is Physics and Chemistry (one subject, Physical Science, here in South Africa) at High School in comparison with Mathematics, if you consider going into Physics and Math at University. I am asking this, because sometimes I don't do so well (not too bad, I just miss...

Of these fifteen candidates, please indicate the paper or papers which you think will contribute most significantly to future quantum gravity research. Multiple choice is possible in the poll, so please select several if you wish. Chamseddine Connes Noncommutative Geometry as a Framework for...

i've heard several teachers talk about ideas being ripe at certain times, and while we often attribute amazing progress to certain individuals, really, the scientific community at large was pretty close to the results. Newton/leibniz, for example. one teacher talked about how archimedes was...

hello all Im trying to solve the equation: i*dV/dt = d^2V/dz^2 + V*sqrt(1-V^2) I want to try by the split step Fourier method. My problem is that most of the code/solvers I saw that implement the SSFM method are when the evolution is in space not in time, meaning the first derivative is d/dz...

A lot of scientific programs are CPU-intensive, so speed is important. Pointers have to do with memory management, which I presume is important since there are often so many array values that memory management becomes important. yet, I don't see it used very often. Are they used very often?

rank these, 1- the most impact or importance and 6- the least impact on modern life. Anesthesia Penicillin/Antibiotics GM Foods Birth control pill Coronary by-pass surgery Human genome project what do u think? there is no correct answer...just curious to see what others say.

I'm hesitating whereas I should make some time to prepare for the Putnam. If I don't have to, I won't, because I'd rather do something else with the little free time I have to be frank. So, in short, is it worth preparing for, if my goal is purely to make my grad application look better? I'm not...

Dear Mathematicians and Physicists, In light of the coming fall semester, I am having a decision to take a full blown graduate level Elliptic PDE class. The prerequisites is of course Graduate level analysis and perhaps a undergrad class in PDE, both of which I already have. The class will be...

Of these fifteen candidates, please indicate the paper or papers which you think will contribute most significantly to future quantum gravity research. Multiple choice is possible in the poll, so please select several if you wish. Newest papers are listed first. In some cases, a pair of related...

Here's my situation: I'm a math student in their second term of their junior year. I didn't do so good in my first 2 years of college, and even failed a couple of classes (I did manage some good grades here and there though). This was mostly due to a poor work ethic and perhaps some other things...

I mean I know people who take Calculus in their High school and they repeat it again in college for "easy GPA", but is GPA that important? I mean I know it is necessary for GRad school, but should I do it? I am heading into Theoretical Physics and I am deciding whether I should do this or...

Could a working physicist or astronomer post old documents, calculations, scratch work, memos, projects, publications, or anything else pertaining to their past work? It doesn't need to be something that i can comprehend. Just something representative of the problems you face on the job. Any...

I know a lot of people say water or carbon and some people even say fusion or gravity. I think these are just the building blocks we happen to find in our universe but I think life could exist without any of those things as long as the laws of physics of any particular universe allow for...

Hi I want check my answer and If there any mistake please correct it to me[/b]

I'm a sophomore in math.I intend to learn mathematical and physics something like differential geometry,topology and QFT in my next years and do some research in some relative topics.I know I need to learn many courses and I feel I don't have enough time.This semester we open a course called...

I want to know is it important to study D'Alembert solution? My main goal is to study Electromagnetics and wave equations, not the mechanical or heat equations. Seems like it is just one way of solving the PDE.

How important? My university requries at least 1 year of Biology in a high school, but I didn't take it.

Hello, Could someone please elaborate and possibly, be specific about the Importannce and Legal Responsibility of Working Safely in a lab are? Also, could you please explain to me the importance of working accurately and how accuracy can be ensured in the techniques used. My above...

I am interested to know who to find upper bounds for derivatives of convolutions. If I know something of f and g, are there any major results about what kind of numbers C_{f,g} exist such that |D_x((f *g)(x))| \leq C_{f,g} ?

Can anyone tell me what's the definition of close packed plane in lattice structure? How can I be sure the close packed plane in FCC structure is (111) ?

Einstein said that all frames are equally important. Now, assume that I (or body A) was moving at a velocity of V. If body B was considered to be stationary and I was traveling away from it at a high speed then my time would slow down. This I understand. But... If body A was the inertial...

Of these twelve candidates, please indicate the paper or papers which you think will contibute most significantly to future research in 4D quantum gravity. Multiple choice is possible in the poll, so pick several if you wish. Barrett Fairbairn Hellmann http://arxiv.org/abs/0912.4907 Quantum...

If every state of universe coexist with every other state of universe in multidimentional space, does it really matter where something actually is?

please read all the question and when answering only some, mention which question you are answering 1. matter is a "frozen" energy (yes or no) 2. heat is energy, measured by the movement speed of molecules 3. electromagnetic waves as the go next to the to the atomes they pull and push the...

I was just wondering about this, because I've heard it quite often that physics is fertile ground for new ideas in mathematics, historically and currently. In the past we can think of Newton inventing calculus to solve physics problems, Fourier inventing Fourier analysis (now that sounds odd; I...

but ultra important in quantum physics? i can see it is important in quantum physics but i can not see why it is less important in classical physics.

Hi everyone, I am asking very basic question. But I think there is some important concept I am missing. why is compactness important or why should one look out for compact sets? I understand that they are bounded and closed and functions on them have good properties wrt to continuity...

Alright, I'm just getting my feet wet in the world of physics, but, I've taken a particular interest in quantum mechanics/physics. And, my first question is, what is the point of quantum computing? It's my understanding (Though it's probably seriously flawed) that quantum computations are used...

Homework Statement "A 3-point jump shot is release 2.2 m above the ground, 6.02 m from the basket, which is 3.05 m high. For launch angles of 30 degrees and 60 degrees find the speed needed to make the basket." For which angle is it more important that they player get the speed right? To...

I'm always hearing about monolayers... what make them so interesting? And while I'm asking dumb questions, why are 2 out of any 3 physical chemists working on protein folding modeling?

I've notice that our eye balls are spheres, our Earth is a sphere and our sun is a sphere.. Now that makes me wonder. If our universe is a sphere, i already know scientist think so, but its still something to even think more into. Now this is the big part, triangles are important as well. Like a...

Hey guys, I am a freshmen mech engineering student and so far I have been really disappointed in my college performance. I am on an academic scholarship that I need a 3.0+ to keep, which I thought would be no problem at all. However, I don't know what I am doing wrong. I just took a math test...

I am going to have a test on polar coordinates next week. What are the most important things to remember?

This is an advance function question that our teacher gave us as a bonus question. Right now my percentage is around 79 and if i get this question right i can get at least 83 in my final mark. So it will be very very very appreciated if someone can help me solve this question ASAP, i only have 2...

Overall, society in general seems to values looks over any other aspect about a person when selecting that person for a mate. Do you think looks are a little less important in the "intelligensia" community. I feel like I am the only person that seems to disregard looks when assessing other...

Say I discovered something very important scientific. Who exactly would I call to tell them about this? Or go to?

Lets say I have circuit with resistance 4Ohms and the current 100mA. If I use Ohm's law, I get 0.4V. Why is it important to know the voltage if there is already a current? Also, when you know the energy available per unit charge (voltage) and current, I can calculate the power. In that case...

Of these nine candidates, please indicate the paper or papers which you think will contibute most significantly to future research in 4D quantum gravity. Multiple choice is possible in the poll, so pick several if you wish. http://arxiv.org/abs/0909.4221 Ashtekar, Campiglia, Henderson...

I mean ones that arent causin irritation. What do you think?

Hi, I'm working with my granddad on a project to build a (simple!) electricity generating windmill. We're not trying to make the most efficient design possible, just a reasonably efficient design given the simple tools and materials we're using. It's mostly just a project for fun! :) So, we...

If you fire energetic ionising particles, like electrons or protons, at a stationary target, the important interactions are ionisation, nuclear reactions and scattering. But if the incoming particles are traveling at high speed, will they not generate a high magnetic field? Why is such a...