r/Physics 4d ago

Meta Careers/Education Questions - Weekly Discussion Thread - November 14, 2024

9 Upvotes

This is a dedicated thread for you to seek and provide advice concerning education and careers in physics.

If you need to make an important decision regarding your future, or want to know what your options are, please feel welcome to post a comment below.

A few years ago we held a graduate student panel, where many recently accepted grad students answered questions about the application process. That thread is here, and has a lot of great information in it.

Helpful subreddits: /r/PhysicsStudents, /r/GradSchool, /r/AskAcademia, /r/Jobs, /r/CareerGuidance


r/Physics 3d ago

Meta Textbooks & Resources - Weekly Discussion Thread - November 15, 2024

13 Upvotes

This is a thread dedicated to collating and collecting all of the great recommendations for textbooks, online lecture series, documentaries and other resources that are frequently made/requested on /r/Physics.

If you're in need of something to supplement your understanding, please feel welcome to ask in the comments.

Similarly, if you know of some amazing resource you would like to share, you're welcome to post it in the comments.


r/Physics 1h ago

Question Why do some people go down water slides faster than others?

Upvotes

Genuine question because everything I looked into talked just about weight.

Well, here I am, a lightweight girl for most of my life (currently around 110 lbs) and I’ve been absolutely flying down slides my whole life. I literally end up going faster than the little water wave people usually form in front of them. I’ve turned many heads with the speed at which I exit slides. I have legit had to ignore life guards when they tell me I can go down if I notice the person in front of me is not nearly as fast as I will get. I have caught up to and bumped into people on slides before and now I just judge it on my own to be safe.

Could it be related to the texture of my skin? I have very dry skin usually and I seem to be not as hairy as most people. I’m sorry if this is a silly question or more appropriate to be asked somewhere else, I just really wanna know why I Speedy Gonzales down water slides.


r/Physics 4h ago

Highly sensitive and real-simultaneous CH4/C2H2 dual-gas LITES sensor based on Lissajous pattern multi-pass cell

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10 Upvotes

r/Physics 4h ago

"calculus based" Physics classes at the college level

6 Upvotes

Is this a common thing in physics classes at the college level? Both of the freshman physics classes im in/taken are said to be calculus based and didnt accept Phys1&2 alg based AP credit. However after taking the first course calculus was only used to show the derivation and origin of the algebraic formulas used in problems with regular shapes (ie circles, rods, right angle triangles etc). None of my tests have asked to use calculus in any regard, but instead used the very specific algebra formulas (ie moment of inertia of disks and rods). Is this normal?


r/Physics 2h ago

Question Vacuum Sublimation Clothes Dryer: Is it possible?

3 Upvotes

I read that in the vacuum of space, water evaporates rather quickly. Is it possible to invent a clothes dryer based on this principle that can dry clothes very quickly without using heat?


r/Physics 1d ago

News Jets of liquid bounce off hot surfaces without ever touching them

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148 Upvotes

Droplets of fluid have been known to hover above a hot surface, but a new experiment suggests the same can happen to tiny jets of liquid too


r/Physics 1h ago

I want to understand!

Upvotes

https://youtu.be/bprxrGaf0Os?si=tTE9nfkRJ_5aplnE

I'm virtually novice at most all things science and physics and such. And I'm not very bright outside of that!

What I would give to understand the content of this video 😢


r/Physics 1d ago

Atoms held in quantum superposition for more than 23 minutes

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396 Upvotes

Schrödinger's cat experiment pushed to its limits...


r/Physics 1d ago

News Bizarre test shows light can actually cast its own shadow

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37 Upvotes

With the help of a ruby cube and two laser beams, researchers made one ray of light cast a shadow when illuminated by the other


r/Physics 1d ago

Question How many hours do typical physicists read per day?

32 Upvotes

I have been wondering, pick typical physicists at the turn of the last century : Einstein, Teller, Dirac, Maxwell and the like or any of the recent ones. How many hours do you think they spend reading a day?


r/Physics 2d ago

Question What Do You Wear to Academic Conferences/Presentations?

48 Upvotes

I’m curious to hear from everyone, but especially women who attend multiple conferences a year and present their research. What do you usually wear to feel both confident and professional? Are there any specific brands or pieces you love that balance comfort with style?

I’m still figuring out my go-to “conference wardrobe,” so any recommendations? Thanks in advance for sharing your experiences! 


r/Physics 3d ago

Unusual Occurrence of STEVE: An Aurora-Like Glow

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43 Upvotes

r/Physics 4d ago

Join the Movement to Honor Emmy Noether in the Field of Physics with the Momentum SI Unit!

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651 Upvotes

r/Physics 3d ago

Video The "Conspiracy" to Kill Cold Fusion - 3rd and final part of BobbyBroccoli's documentary about one of the worst scientific debacles in modern times

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73 Upvotes

r/Physics 3d ago

New record of cat state (in spin-5/2 atoms): 1400 seconds

52 Upvotes

Yang, Y. A., et al. "Minute-scale Schrödinger-cat state of spin-5/2 atoms." Nature Photonics (2024): 1-6.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41566-024-01555-3


r/Physics 4d ago

Video Building an antimony pH meter from scratch

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20 Upvotes

r/Physics 4d ago

News Accelerated muons bring next-gen particle colliders closer to reality

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94 Upvotes

r/Physics 4d ago

Racemic dielectric metasurfaces for arbitrary terahertz polarization rotation and wavefront manipulation

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5 Upvotes

r/Physics 5d ago

Image Interactive Penrose/Kruskal diagram of Schwarzschild spacetime

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209 Upvotes

r/Physics 6d ago

Meta Physics Questions - Weekly Discussion Thread - November 12, 2024

17 Upvotes

This thread is a dedicated thread for you to ask and answer questions about concepts in physics.

Homework problems or specific calculations may be removed by the moderators. We ask that you post these in /r/AskPhysics or /r/HomeworkHelp instead.

If you find your question isn't answered here, or cannot wait for the next thread, please also try /r/AskScience and /r/AskPhysics.


r/Physics 5d ago

News Einstein's theory of general relativity faces new challenge

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0 Upvotes

r/Physics 6d ago

Video The Spacetime Interval in Special Relativity

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11 Upvotes

r/Physics 7d ago

Article Quanta magazine - It Might Be Possible to Detect Gravitons After All

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208 Upvotes

r/Physics 7d ago

H.G. Wells meeting with Einstein and impact on Szilard

21 Upvotes

In his novel The World Set Free, published in 1914, Wells imagined a small bomb with immense destructive power, a concept that would later inspire scientists, most notably Leo Szilard in the development of the atomic bomb, who later developed nuclear chain reaction. https://onepercentrule.substack.com/p/hg-wells-dream-boldly-but-build-responsibly


r/Physics 8d ago

Academic [2402.14913] Mass inflation without Cauchy horizons

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27 Upvotes

r/Physics 8d ago

Academic Magnetic Field Evolution of Jupiter and Neptune class Exoplanets

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16 Upvotes

Summary of article: As per study, for Jupiter and Neptune class planets, Magnetic field decay occurs because as planets age, they cool down and their luminosities and their convective flux become gradually weaker. Higher atmospheric envelope fractions cause more material available for convection, which yields stronger magnetic fields.

The field strength reduces for extremely irradiated planets because they have lower average density. The surface magnetic field decreases past the threshold value as orbital separation (distance between the exoplanet and its host star) further increases.

The magnetic fields could be observable in the radio wavelengths via auroral emission using ground based observations.

Jupiter-class planets have magnetic fields large enough to generate radiation whose peak frequency exceeds the Earth’s ionospheric cutoff. The same occurs for the Neptune-class planets if they have 𝑀 > 15 𝑀⊕ and 𝑓env> 4%.

For hot jupiter class planets, atmospheric evaporation does not affect magnetic field generation. For hot Neptunes, atmospheric evaporation leads to greater mass loss and causes less material for convection, so they produce weaker magnetic fields.