#physics

#physics

Lightsabers come in a cosmic rainbow of hues and a variety of shapes. There's even a double-bladed version in Phantom Menace, showcasing the creativity behind these iconic weapons.

Ralph's research focuses on the electronic, magnetic and optical properties of nanometer-scale samples, particularly revealing the 'spin-transfer torque effect' which manipulates magnetic orientation.

General Relativity has yet to let us down. Its success rate is 100%, from tabletop experiments to gravitational lensing and the formation of the great cosmic web.

Moller emphasizes that architecture should not be confined to regulations and data, as this limits the potential for innovation and creativity within the discipline.

'To get it to flip, linear force isn't enough,' one of their researchers said. 'We need a pivot point. 'For the pancake to flip, it must rotate. This comes from torque, which happens when the pan pushing slightly off the pancake's centre of mass, giving it angular acceleration.'

From Einstein's spacetime theory to the brain's internal clock, they examine whether time is an external property of the universe or a mental construct. By connecting physics and neuroscience, they unpack the idea that how we experience time may differ entirely from how it actually works. We created this video for Brain Briefs, a Big Think interview series created in partnership with Unlikely Collaborators. As a creative non-profit organization, they're on a mission to help people challenge their perceptions and expand their thinking.

A lot of people trying to move too fast in a huge crowd can be dangerous,

Nobody expected the Spanish Inquisition, but then again no one could have predicted the giraffe, the iPhone or JD Vance. The laws of physics don't demand them; they all just evolved, expressions of how (for better or worse) things happened to turn out. Ecologist Mark Vellend's thesis is that to understand the world, physics and evolution are the only two things you need. Evolution, here, refers in the most general sense to outcomes that depend on what has gone before.

The exploration of color has deep implications for art, physics, and perception that date back centuries, engaging thinkers from Isaac Newton to contemporary scientists.

Nothing can exceed the ultimate speed limit set by the laws of physics, known as the speed of light in a vacuum, or 299,792,458 m/s.

Lasers, invented in 1958, allow for the production of truly monochromatic light through stimulated emission, achieving specific wavelengths and building photon density in a cavity.

My first encounter with physics came when I was eight years old, inspired by the story of a great scientist who left an unfinished manuscript on his desk. This sparked my fascination with the universe and the fundamental laws governing it, particularly the legacy of Einstein and his elusive theory of everything, which aims to encapsulate the workings of the cosmos in a single equation.

The idea of levitating off the ground has captivated human imagination, and quantum levitation demonstrates that specially-made materials can float indefinitely above magnets under the right conditions.

Some pushback came because a few people did not consider certain subjects I studied to be "serious." Others were upset because I was emphasizing what seemed to them unscientific aspects. We could have captured the same physics without working nearly as hard as we did to perfect the photography, and this made people upset. They said, "You're a scientist, you're not supposed to care about things like that." But it matters to me that you appeal to as many aspects of the human endeavor as you can.

The idea of speeding up Earth's rotation to halve a day presents challenges like redefining time and can lead to insights into physics and potential innovations.

Emmy Noether established a profound connection between symmetries in physics and conservation laws, revealing that not all systems adhere to strict energy conservation principles.

The ongoing interplay between theory and experiment in physics is critical; when discrepancies arise, they signal opportunities for deeper understanding and potential paradigm shifts.

"The real behavior of a rolling object is largely a function of its geometry. This insight is essential for accurately predicting how rigid bodies will behave in various contexts."

"In order to succeed, a perpetual motion machine should be free of friction, run in a vacuum chamber and be totally silent since sound equates to energy loss."

Since H.G. Wells combined the words "time travel" - and used them so systematically to refer to using a machine to travel to a certain date in the calendar - in The Time Machine in 1895, scientists and the public at large have been fascinated with its possibility.