Recent content by Timothy S

"...tau instead of pi...", this was quoted verbatim from my original post. Is that not enough context for you dr?

I'm not a physicist or scientist but I am curious as to what your opinions are about using tau instead of pi in physics papers and research. Would you be able to get away with it, or would your peer reviewers get confused?

Sorry it was a really stupid question on so many levels.

If I write the lagrangian for a moving charge with constant angular speed, would a magnetic field be emergent? I would do the math myself, but I'm nowhere near pen and paper.

I believe I am misunderstanding the equations I must use for the Runge Kutta of an orbit in polar coordinates. What differential equations can i use which will allow me to numerically determine both an object's distance and angle in an orbit, dependent on time?

Oh I see. You cannot do that with orbits as gravity is a differential equation and it is impossible to solve the orbital trajectory explicitly as a function of time. You must first write the equation of motion of gravity in polar coordinates like so, \ddot{r}-r \dot{ \theta }^{2}=-\frac{GM}{...

can you show what equations you are using?

Your simulation is probably not using a high enough order Runge - Kutta method, and is giving you increasingly inaccurate results as time goes on.

Thank you, good point about the error propagation.

Hello everyone, I am curious as to if it is possible to use the Euler Method to solve the gravity differential equations? Would the approximations quickly diverge to inaccurate solutions, or would it stay relatively reliable? Thanks

In high school chemistry, which I am in right now, we are the very simple means by which to balance a chemical reaction and determine the products of a reactions. My question is; is any reaction possible as long as the valence electrons of the reactants equal eight? Obviously the answer is no...

Instead of F = ma, is it valid to write λxa = F, (in the case of a linear, one dimensional object). Does this make sense, I am just curious. Also, would this lead to any real insights about a system? Edit: For clarity's sake, I replaced mass with linear density times length, which in this case...

I do, but I don't know how to properly set the equation so that I can integrate.

can you explain to me how to do that?

Hi, Is there a way to derive the moment of inertia of a sphere without using the M of I of a cylinder? In other words, is it possible to find a sphere's from scratch? Please include a derivation in your answer, unless there isn't one of course.