Ask a physicist anything. (8)

[essentialsaltes]

What are the equations on the cake?

As Elendur notes, they are Feynman diagrams. In particular, they show various processes that would produce the Higgs boson.

 

[Wiccan_Child]

My tip:
Feynman diagram - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Here's also something that's related, which I found interesting:
New Discovery Simplifies Quantum Physics

And I second that motion

"Artist’s rendering of the amplituhedron, a newly discovered mathematical object resembling a multifaceted jewel in higher dimensions. Encoded in its volume are the most basic features of reality that can be calculated — the probabilities of outcomes of particle interactions."

Yes, hyper-dimensional jewellery is simpler than quantum mechanics

 

[Justatruthseeker]

What are the equations on the cake?

Oh and happy... erm.... account birthday?

The only equations that really matter, EM equations.

 

[lesliedellow]

The only equations that really matter, EM equations.

Words truly fail me.

http://scientopia.org/blogs/galacticinteractions/2011/01/15/how-i-know-plasma-cosmology-is-wrong/

 

[Michael]

Yes, hyper-dimensional jewellery is simpler than quantum mechanics

And prettier too, particularly the mathematical sparkle.

 

[Zippy the Wonderslug]

What is the name of this swirl pattern?

I vaguely recall it has something to do with being the most beautiful mathematical formula.

It was once mentioned in an episode of Criminal Minds.

Dr. Spencer Reid spotted the pattern on a map but I can't find that show.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers.

 

[TerranceL]

Fibonacci sequence

 

[Zippy the Wonderslug]

Fibonacci sequence

Omygosh!

That's it!

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

 

[TerranceL]

Anytime!

 

[Zippy the Wonderslug]

Anytime!

The fact you got that correctly, with my horrible MS Paint job, makes you one of my most favorite people on the internet.

 

[Zippy the Wonderslug]

...

 

[Zippy the Wonderslug]

...

 

[essentialsaltes]

Cost will depend on your local utility rates (and how cold it is). Here in Southern California, it's never very cold, and water is scarce, so it might be water. In other places, probably the electricity.

Running a microwave that long won't inherently harm it or the house electricity. But I'm not sure you could put enough matter inside to safely soak up that much energy. Even if you put a frozen burrito the size of your head in there, it's gonna catch on fire or something. If you tried to do that with it empty, I'm pretty sure you'd wreck the microwave.

 

[Chesterton]

Speaking of microwaved burritos, why does the inside of mine get hotter on the ends than in the middle? The ends have the overlapped folds of tortilla; it seems if anything the middle should get hotter.

 

[essentialsaltes]

Speaking of microwaved burritos, why does the inside of mine get hotter on the ends than in the middle? The ends have the overlapped folds of tortilla; it seems if anything the middle should get hotter.

Could be a number of different things

Possibly just that it's thicker there, so it's the last thing to thaw. Even though the microwave is supposed to heat things 'all over', it probably still makes a difference whether a particular piece is surrounded by cold, dense burrito, or is on an edge bordering room temperature air.

Possibly the microwave has uneven spots of heating, though most modern microwaves don't have that problem much.

Possibly the difference in composition. The microwave may excite particular molecules better than others. Maybe it's good at heating tortilla, and not so good at beans and cheese.

 

[Wiccan_Child]

Speaking of microwaved burritos, why does the inside of mine get hotter on the ends than in the middle? The ends have the overlapped folds of tortilla; it seems if anything the middle should get hotter.

It's the nature of microwaves not to heat up the middle as much as the outside:

(I'm sure this applies to more than just leftovers)

 

[Zippy the Wonderslug]

Hey all.

So on a certain drawing website, I would like to run a script where the mouse will click on a random color.

Here's the Color Wheel as it appears on my screen.

Is there a way to generate random X,Y coordinates within this area?

Cheers.

 

[Strathos]

I asked this on the other thread, but I'll ask here too:

I know how to calculate the formula for a Schwarzschild radius, but, if given a known volume of matter of a known density, is there any way to determine how much energy in joules would be required to compress it to its Schwarzschild radius?

 

[lesliedellow]

I asked this on the other thread, but I'll ask here too:

I know how to calculate the formula for a Schwarzschild radius, but, if given a known volume of matter of a known density, is there any way to determine how much energy in joules would be required to compress it to its Schwarzschild radius?

I suspect a substance's compressibility would depend upon more than just its density. Especially if you were having to overcome forces within the atom. The Schwarzchild radius of the Earth is 0.9cm, and I doubt if any conventional calculation would work if you were trying to get it down to that size.

 

[Elendur]

Hey all.

So on a certain drawing website, I would like to run a script where the mouse will click on a random color.

Here's the Color Wheel as it appears on my screen.

{picure}

Is there a way to generate random X,Y coordinates within this area?

Cheers.

If you know the center coordinates (x0,y0) and the inner and outer radius, you can generate any point within that annulus with the following formula:

(x,y) = (x0,y0) + r*(cos T , sin T)

Where r is randomized between the inner and outer radius.
Where T is randomized between 0 and 2*pi.

Edit:
Should you want it represented another way:

x = x0 + r*cos T
y = y0 + r*sin T