Impossible Definition and 298 Threads

  1. L

    Why is 100% efficient thermal insulator impossible?

    Somebody told me this and I have yet to figure out even if the statement is true or not.
  2. K

    Can a Bowling Ball Really Travel 200 Meters After Launching from a Ramp?

    Homework Statement A solid bowling ball rolls down a hill with a height of 12.00 meters. The end of the hill has a ramp/jump which has an unknown angle above the horizontal. When the ball leaves the ramp at the unkown angle, its speed is13.09 meters per second and travels a distance of 200.0...
  3. S

    Impossible Question in CIE Physics Exam: Is It Really Unsolvable?

    Hi, the students that are the year below my year level sat their external physics exam recently. Only problem was, there seems to be an impossible question in the paper: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v221/skyglow1/impossibleq.jpg This is a scan from the paper. It seems like there's no way...
  4. W

    Impossible problem? [Varibles ONLY]

    Ok this problem is driving me INSANE, I did the other 34 this is my last one and I just need help on it because my brain locks up with solid only variables. The problem is below. I would appreciate steps shown to get final answer.
  5. T

    How Do You Calculate Acceleration in a Centrifuge?

    Nonuniform/Uniform Circular Motion... i think I keep putting my posts in the wrong forum. Anyway.. I have a few problems left that I'm completely stumped on how to do. #1) A typical lab centrifuge rotates at 4000rpm. Test tubes have to be placed into a centrifuge very carefully because of...
  6. T

    How Do You Solve Complex Physics Problems Involving Rotational Motion?

    Impossible Physx Homework! I have a few problems left that I'm completely stumped on how to do. #1) A typical lab centrifuge rotates at 4000rpm. Test tubes have to be placed into a centrifugre very carefully because of the very large aceelerations. What is the acceleration at the end of a...
  7. S

    Discover "Impossible Optics" from Mid '90s Invention TV Show

    Back in the mid '90s a show on the Discovery Channel called Invention showed an invention I shall call "impossible optics", since I don't know what else to. It didn't really explain how it worked (other than a number of lenses were involved, no mention of optical gratings), and it's been...
  8. H

    Mission: Impossible - The Movie

    Mission: Impossible -- The Movie i am currently working on a summer assignment that involves me finding 2 examples of good and bad physics and back it up with concepts/laws. The movie i was given was Mission Impossible. The scenes i think have physics are when the helicopter is in the...
  9. E

    Getting Nowhere: Proving an Impossible Math Problem

    I am in a really badly taught and administered summer course We never get solutions to exams or explanations of our mistakes. So, here is this problem that bothers me, still don't know how to do it: Prove that in sequence of 15 positive integers (not including zero) that are not...
  10. M

    What would be impossible to build and why?

    why are guns metal? why are bridges made the way they are? why do we not make double decker lorries? this is my thinking... you follow?
  11. O

    Can Approaching the Speed of Light Prohibit Time Travel?

    I was reading something about spacetime, and I have a question. Space and time are interwoven with each other and unless my understanding is utterly wrong, as an object's speed increases, time slows down. Thus, time slows with increasing acceleration. As well, the law for all motion under...
  12. M

    5th puzzle post-the impossible sequence

    :cool: o.k wats missing from the LINE UP... 9,36,225,256,400, _ ,1225,1600 . damm, u got all the others instantly.. hope it isn't the case for this ...its a 3 step solution ...sorta ,nothing too ridiculous ,,and its slightly lateral and mensa ' ry...
  13. S

    Impossible Statistics/Probability Questions

    Customers arrive at a checkout counter at a department store an average of 8 times per hour. Twenty percent of them are buying things from section A of the store. a) Find the probability of getting fewer than seven customers at the checkout counter in one hour. How are supposed to know...
  14. T

    Solving the "Impossible" Matchstick Triangles

    In "The Equation That Couldn't Be Solved: How mathematical genius discovered the language of symmetry" by Mario Livio, he poses the following problem on page 268: You are given six matches of equal length, and the objective is to use them to form exactly four triangles, in which all the sides...
  15. V

    How Does Mass M Accelerate on a Frictionless Incline?

    a mass M slides down a fricitionless 30 degree incline. its speed is 24m/s as it leaves the incline. a. What is the acceleration?
  16. V

    I think this question is impossible.

    a football is kicked at an angle of 45 degrees and it travels 82m before it hits the ground. Ignore air resistance a. What is its initial velocity? b. How long was it in the air? c. How high did it go?
  17. Q

    Flying is impossible, so is timetravel.

    People in the 1800's though flying was impossible. How can you take metal weighing several tons and fly with it? But look where we are now in only 100 years. Well, so now people are saying time travel is impossible. It may be, but it just *may* be possible in the future. Maybe we do not know...
  18. B

    *insert generic impossible question here*

    Isn't that what the study of Philosophy is? Trying to make sense of questions that can't be answered through normal means?
  19. T

    Impossible for Universe/Existence to be Random?

    is it mathematicly/statisticly impossible for the universe and existence (i'm talking from the moment of the big bang to when life first appeared) to have happened randomly? so many billions and billions of thing's had to happen just right from the big bang to when life first appeared without...
  20. K

    A seemingly impossible problem from my teacher

    No its not homework, but my teacher (pre-cal) couldn't figure it out and neither can I, so see if you can! I can't draw it so i'll explain it, pretty simple. You have a square (ABCD) with a random point closest to the bottom-left corner of the square (it doesn't really matter which...
  21. A

    Engineering Voltage Across Resistor in Series Circuit: Impossible?

    for the question: the toal voltage across a string of seires resistors is 24V. If one of the resitors is open, how much voltage is there across it? How much is there across each of the good resitors? my problem: isn't it impossible to find which part is open in a series circuit without...
  22. R

    Solving Impossible Physics Problem

    I got this problem in physics today and i have no idea how to do it: You are on a firing team in Iraq. You are manning a piece of artillery that fires a 15kg. projectile out of a 12mm barrel. with a constant in barrel force of 1500N. The mew(i think that is how you spell it) is .22. the...
  23. Mk

    "The Impossible Yes-No Question - Can You Answer It?

    What is a yes or no question that is impossible to answer with a no or yes? :confused: There has to be one!
  24. wasteofo2

    Impossible to centrifuge salt out of water?

    I've been told (by my high school chemistry teacher, which obviously means it isn't necessarily true), that when salt dissolves in water, that you cannot centrifuge it out. I understand that you can't centrifuge it out like you would sugar, or something that doesn't ionize, but it seems to me...
  25. J

    Can You See Other Stars While Sitting on the Sun?

    This is a thing that I would like help with. If I was sitting on the sun (impossible I know) would I see light from any other source entering my location? If not why not?
  26. Q

    Stablizing Exotic atoms Impossible?

    I was thinking if you entangled both the electron and positron in a states that both of their orbitals don't interact. Or just entangle the electron with a helium higher orbital electron. Or you entangled a muon with a helium proton(is that even possible?). Is there any way to keep a...
  27. R

    Impossible vector problem. Help

    Most of the time, one uses vectors to find an overall magnitude acting on something, but I need to go in reverse. Say I know there are a slew of charges and the center one feels a force of some magnitude and there is one undefined vector (magnitude and angle unknown) I would think if you know...
  28. B

    An impossible quantum theory of everything?

    No existing quantum mechanics or theory need be thought to sufficiently explain how it is that the subatomic of matter or photons of radiation can be detected and described as possessing their properties of behaviour called wave and spin or as being entangled in composite or singlet states, none...
  29. B

    Why time traveling (To the past) is impossible.

    I figured if anyone would understand my theory it's you. Now for one I'd like to make it clear I don't believe in time travel. I believe if you go faster then light (If you can..) you'll rip through the space-time countiuem and slip into a pocket dimension, it folds around you. And you're in a...
  30. T

    My profesor gave us this (I think) impossible problem to do.

    She may want us to assume something but I'm not sure and can't ask her for a while. There just isn't enough info I think. here it is. A ball is rolled on level floor a distance of 3.5m to another person. The ball made 15 revolutions. a) asked for diameter of the ball which is easy and I...
  31. S

    Impossible to predict where a particle will be

    Quantum physics states that it is impossible to predict where a particle will be for any interval of time. Another discipline states that if it were possible to track and predict the movement of all of the particles in the universe, it would be possible to predict the future. It is...
  32. I

    Impossible escape velocity question

    I've got a question in front of me that asks to find the escape velocity for a hypothetical celestial object that has the same density as the sun. MC answers are - 1)2.51 x 10^3 m/s 2)6.18 x 10^5 m/s 3)3.08 x 10^5 m/s 4)5.42 x 10^10 m/s As far as I can work out its not possible to find...
  33. J

    Hans Dehmelt's Refutation of Bohr's Claim: The Impossible Made Possible

    Hans Dehmelt (Nobel Prize 1989), with others in 1979, measured the ratio of the electron's intrinsic magnetism to its intrinsic "spin". Bohr and the quantum community had essentially declared this to be impossible. David Wick in his book "The Infamous Boundry" provides a picture of the...
  34. O

    Question - is it impossible for nothing to exist?

    question- Is it impossible for 'nothing' to exist? or can a point in space merely approach this limit? in other words be so close to zero as to effectively appear as such?
  35. F

    Light speed Impossible Faster than lightProbable?

    Light speed...Impossible Faster than light..Probable? With all the talk of speed of light and what not i have to ask. Einstien said that to travel at the speed of light required an infinite amount of energy, correct? Einstien also said that it is impossible to go from a velocity of below the...
  36. M

    Is Reaching Absolute Zero Truly Impossible?

    Am i right when i say its impossible to reach absolute zero? Because of the uncertainty principle, you would need an infinite amount of energy to keep a particle completely still. Thanx
  37. S

    Secret dark organization of impossible trivia

    Hi Hi.I am new around here, so I am just saying hello.‎
  38. A

    Why Dividing 1 by 0 is Impossible?

    why can't we divide 1 by 0 ? can anyone prove iy mathmatically ? thanx regards abc
  39. G

    Solving the Impossible Problem: A Mathematical Challenge

    The Impossible Problem! I thought this might be a little fun, my professor gave us this problem for extra credit a while back, and he published it in some math journal with the title "The impossible problem." Can any of you guys solve it? Let x and y be two numbers with 1 < x < y and x+y <=...
  40. T

    Solving the "Impossible Triangle" Puzzle

    My Latin teacher is a retired nuclear physicist. He is a very smart guy. Sometimes, he shows us things called ABL (anything but latin) like math or logic. Its a fun class. Anyway, there is one geometry problem he gave us that has been bugging me. Look at this diagram on this link...
  41. B

    How Much Warmer Is Water at the Bottom of Niagara Falls?

    i can't even figure out where to start with this one The water going over Niagara Falls drops 50.6 m. How much warmer is the water at the bottom of the falls thatn it is at the top? Disregard any possible effects of evaporation of water during the fall. any help would be appreciated and...
  42. B

    Impossible creation of potential energy

    Hi folks, Sorry for this second post so quick but its bugging me! I have been reconsidering some fundamentals of electrics and have opened a can of worms for myself (thanks Cliff for closing the lid on the previous one). If i consider again a simple closed DC circuit consisting of a wire and...
  43. P

    Superluminal spacecraft: impossible?

    Einstein asserted that the mass would have become infinite and/or created a black hole. But then came Alcubierre in 1994 who said it might be possible by contracting space in front of the ship and expanding space behind. They said this would violate laws of energy conservation, but the physicist...
  44. S

    What Formulas Do You Use to Solve These Tricky Physics Problems?

    hi all... here are some physics questions that i am puzzled on and lost. help! if you are able to solve them please show how, or at least what formulas/equations you used to get there. thanks! (even if you have a clue take a shot!anything could help). when a 0.64kg ball is dropped on your...
  45. S

    Is the Search for Life's Meaning Designed to Be Unattainable?

    Hi, Some one recently asked me a question. He asked me "Why would God gives us the intelligence to search for the meaning of life and yet make it impoossible to find"? To me this question was said in a way that suggested sadness and frustration. It prompted me to write this little...
  46. FZ+

    Proof that Nothing is Impossible: C.R.A.P. Idea

    As part of my Current Relativist Amazingly Pragmatic (C.R.A.P.) Idea. I wish to make the following claim: Nothing is Impossible. The arguments behind this claim are: 1. Anecdotal evidence from quantum uncertainty etc. 2. All logical disproofs have inherent uncertainty due to inductive...
  47. S

    Impossible? particle, wave, light, radiation,the fundamentals of photons

    I am trying to get a firm understanding of the fundamental reality of light, radiation, and photons, as modern science presently perceives it all.I am familiar with the two slit experiments and want to know if the particle/wave perception of light makes sense do to these experiments, or if this...
  48. B

    Why do we keep saying its impossible?

    I was wondering why we keep sayign things are impossible? If anything history has shown us that when we say something is impossible, more often than not, it isnt! "Everything which can be invented, has been invented" - Head of the patent office of america, 1899. A multitude of times in the...
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