@007 Well, some are respectful..! - some tease you..!
I am not a scientist but I have general interest in astro physics. I know that Newtons laws do not always explain what we see in the interaction of galaxies causing the the creation of dark energy and matter to be added to the equations. Even Einsteins generally relativity theories has been adjusted with Lambda (the meaning of which is beyond me). I also note that the essence of gravity has not fully been analyzed. What I was looking for was an explanation for what I observed not a lecture on my ignorance. — Robert SchultzApr 27 at 12:44
I have a neutrino oscillation question I've been sitting on for a while because I think it stems from my sever lack of quantum mechanics knowledge. maybe if you get a good answer I'll ask it.
user54412
ah neutrino oscillations - i wish i understood those better
user54412
then again, i wish i knew whether neutrinos were dirac or majorana particles
@dmckee regarding neutrino oscillation, I have searched the site. The trouble is, I know my question is a misunderstanding of QM. I know the answer is "no" and I really want to understand "why".
Can I run the basic gist of it by you here?
Well I might as well state the idea for the question. Maybe you can point me in the right direction. I understand that neutrinos are in a mix of flavor states and that the probability that it is in a given state changes as it propagates. I've read many times that the difference in the square of the masses of the states determines the oscillation rate and this is because the different masses of the flavors causes them to propagate at a different rate.
What I don't understand is why all that happens is that the probabilities "go out of phase" and it becomes more likely it's a different flavor. It seems like if there are three different probabilities waves, traveling at different rates because of their mass difference, that they wouldn't stay in a bunch in a single "particle like" location. I'd imagine the waves spreading out in space and you'd end up with three neutrinos, one of each flavor all heading in the same direction but spaced out
Related to this question is basically, if a neutrino oscillates to where for a period of time there is a 100% chance it is a different flavor, is the whole neutrino traveling at a slower rate? That is does it speed up and slow down as it propagates through space? Surely the answer to this is "no" but I'd like to understand where I'm going wrong.
I would like to better understand how neutrino oscillations are consistent with conservation of momentum because I'm encountering some conceptual difficulties when thinking about it. I do have a background in standard QM but only rudimentary knowledge of particle physics.
If the velocity expect...
Since the total mass-energy for the neutrino presumably does not change when a neutrino changes lepton flavor, though the mass is different, what compensates for the gain or loss of mass? Does the propagation speed of the neutrino change?
I suspect if I understood the math and idea behind the PMNS matrix I'd be able to answer many of my questions. I'm still very much an armchair physicist / beginner when it comes to QM though so it'll take me a while to work up to that level of detail.
Anyone. can we have a Drawing Tool in Physics.SE that helps to make graphs (imp.) and draw images(not much important , we can make it in paint) as many questions require that.
I have been studying causality (specifically why there is no such thing as a simultaneous instant of time across all observers) recently and I keep hearing references to the Andromeda paradox. Can anyone tell me what it is and how it is resolved?
I've tried reading what Wikipedia says about it, ...
@DavidZaslavsky UX has Balsamiq and EE has Circuitlab. If we can find a good (preferably open source, but Balsamiq and CL are not) web-based tool that does this, SE might work on integrating it
I was hoping to hit 200 reputation today but with 65 minutes left it's looking very unlikely. I think if I focused an entire day on edits and answering the questions I can I might be able to do it.
Oxygen, for one. In its gaseous state it moves too fast to be affected, but liquid oxygen can be trapped between the poles of a magnet:
Materials can be broadly classified into three sets:
Diamagnetism: All materials are diamagnetic, but their diamagnetic propoerties are easily masked by para...
nothing about survival there
though I faintly recall writing something about that
Regions of the brain can be "turned off" with intense magnetic fields. I suspect a very high T magnetic field would kill us by causing the ion gaps between neurons not to work properly.
Ever since reading about the NHMFL I have always wondered about this and asked several people without getting a good satisfactory answer. My question is, considering the simplest case let's say a uniform magnetic field with a very high magnitude constant both in time and space permeating a large ...
To be honest sometimes I have a very hard time figuring out which "problem" something should be flagged as. They're written somewhat objectively but categorization feels so subjective.
I probably flagged that as "not constructive" due to the flag wording "but this question will likely solicit debate, arguments, polling, or extended discussion."
Yeah it does seem to be a subjective judgment call. The "not a real question" has the text "This question is ambiguous, vague, incomplete, overly broad, or rhetorical and cannot be reasonably answered in its current form" which also could apply.
That's right, I'm starting this out with a pun. Featuring a Poison song. I'm good with it.
TL;DR
We're looking at replacing [closed] with [on hold]. This sort of thing was proposed in a popular post before and rejected. But we think it's worth revisiting, and that we can address the prior conc...
In the recent off-topic discussion, Pekka 웃 suggested that other close reasons could be further broken out as well . We've got some more specific ideas along those lines, and we want your input and suggestions. Get comfy; this one's long.
Goals for "Not a Real Question" and "Not Constructive"
...
Goals for "Off-Topic"
We'll be asking for your help on a number of closing issues, but this post is focused on how we can improve "Off-Topic" closures.
Don't worry, we plan to keep on closing, but want to identify improvements that optimize for:
clarity- we want to make it as clear as possi...
Well if I can improve their quality without too much work I will. There really are very few questions on the site that I can answer well so if I'm to have a meaningful impact it'll have to be mostly in edits :-)
Yeah but almost every question I have I can either answer myself or I know is the result of a misunderstanding and it's hard to ask a question about your misunderstandings.
I was much more eager to answer my first few days but I realized the quality of my answers was a bit below the average quality of a "good" answer. Now I'm much more careful about it.
What physics.SE is useful for is this: In the process of teaching physics to others, your own physics will improve a lot. I've gotten a lot of great insights into physics by clarifying classmates' doubts. I've only been here (P.SE) for a month, but it has helped immensely. Writing answers is a great way to clarify your own knowledge. Knowledge is a sort of abstractish bundle of fluff.
@BrandonEnright You may be interested in IT Security if you're a network security engineer :)
A few years back when IT Security was more of a hobby I would have been active on the site. Now that it's my job I think I'll spend more of my free time doing something unrelated :-)
Since the total mass-energy for the neutrino presumably does not change when a neutrino changes lepton flavor, though the mass is different, what compensates for the gain or loss of mass? Does the propagation speed of the neutrino change?
Oxygen, for one. In its gaseous state it moves too fast to be affected, but liquid oxygen can be trapped between the poles of a magnet:
Materials can be broadly classified into three sets:
Diamagnetism: All materials are diamagnetic, but their diamagnetic propoerties are easily masked by para...
