Thanks. So the big bang "happened everywhere". Is this inflation or expansion of the universe? Can/did this inflation separate things faster than the speed of light? If so, we could wait for this ancient light to come to us - from all directions. Did this inflation only happen in the past for a...
The Webb telescope images show galaxies that are so far away that it takes ages for their light to reach us, so long that we can see galaxies as they were soon after the big bang. How amazing - but hold on. If we came from the big bang, and nothing travels faster than light, how come we are here...
In a mystery, everything becomes suspect and your reply straightened out a few things. Thanks
Various people suggest that you can understand divergence by thinking of the vector field to as the velocity field of flowing gas. I am trying to understand this for myself, and so I can explain it to...
I am trying to understand “divergence” by considering a one-dimensional example of the vector y defined by:
. the parabola: y = -1 + x^2
The direction of the vector y will either be to the right ( R) when y is positive or to the Left (L).
The gradient = dy/dx = Divergence = Div y = 2 x
x...
Thanks for your help. I think I have the theory right now.
The output shows that the potential energy lost in the toppling = the kinetic energy gained. That gives me confidence.
Thanks for the good ideas for the experiment – but I will leave that for now.
Here are the edited results from my...
I worked out that I was mixing radians and degrees - and then saw your post.
MFB, you are quite right. Thanks.
I have made changes and now as a check, the lost potential energy = the acquired kinetic energy.
For width 0.075 m
initial tile = 35 degrees
Tipping time now predicted = 0.277 seconds...
Thank you all for considering this.
It seems that I have problems with both my theory and my experiment.
I redid my experiment. This time I used slow-motion video on my mobile rather than a stopwatch. I got far smaller results. My previous stopwatch measurements were wrong. The toppling time...
Apologies for not including more info. Here is more detail including my code for various calculations like the acceleration factor.
I realized that I used the wrong width. I rotated the brick on the edge with length 0.104 m, so this is not the width, it is the depth. The width is the 0.075 m...
I am interested in climate change and thereby interested in tipping points. So for the last few months, I have been investigating the dynamics of a toppling brick. I derived a differential equation of for the motion and wrote a computer program to solve this from initial conditions.
I have more...
I am retired now and interested in climate change and thereby interested in tipping points. So for the last few months, I have been investigating the dynamics of a toppling brick. I derived a differential equation of for the motion and wrote a computer program to solve this from initial...