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Just Chat! / Re: Why are most songs about love?
« on: Today at 18:05:01 »
Irritated by love? There are special clinics.....
I have acquired a handy collection of jazz and rock sheet music - enough to deputise in big bands and show groups without rehearsal. I'm fascinated by how many jazz and rock standards are about rain, and how many song titles begin with S.
I have acquired a handy collection of jazz and rock sheet music - enough to deputise in big bands and show groups without rehearsal. I'm fascinated by how many jazz and rock standards are about rain, and how many song titles begin with S.
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Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology / Re: why do a lot of people confuse between interference and diffraction?
« on: Today at 16:06:25 »
No.
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Just Chat! / Re: Why is Brexit a right-wing cause?
« on: Today at 11:53:10 »
Switzerland solved the land border problem many years ago. AFAIK all goods that meet EU standards may be traded in Switzerland and anything manufactured in Switzerland (or China, for that matter) to EU standards may be placed on the market in the EU. I don't see queues of trucks at the border, but they do retain the authority to stop and interrogate anyone or anything they consider suspicious. Given that Switzerland has four official languages and borders with umpteen other countries, it shouldn't be difficult to come to a similar arrangement across a single border in Ireland, where there are only two official languages, including a common business language, on each side.
Anyway, we seem to agree that the Tories are corrupt and incompetent, that the EU Commission is probably corrupt and vindictive, that Brexit isn't a left- or right-wing plot, and that the status quo is a shambles.
I rest my case.
Anyway, we seem to agree that the Tories are corrupt and incompetent, that the EU Commission is probably corrupt and vindictive, that Brexit isn't a left- or right-wing plot, and that the status quo is a shambles.
I rest my case.
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New Theories / Re: Where does quantization of energy of electromagnetic radiation come from?
« on: Today at 11:37:51 »
The entire history of science is essentially the history of the gradual retreat of human stupidity in the face of improving models of the universe, but it has no bearing on how the universe behaves.
The fact is that the energy of electromagnetic radiation in general can take any value (up to the mass energy equivalent of the entire universe) but the energy of a single photon (the means by which we model the interaction of em energy with matter) is hf where f is the frequency of the wave that models that photon's propagation.
The fact is that the energy of electromagnetic radiation in general can take any value (up to the mass energy equivalent of the entire universe) but the energy of a single photon (the means by which we model the interaction of em energy with matter) is hf where f is the frequency of the wave that models that photon's propagation.
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Just Chat! / Re: Why is Brexit a right-wing cause?
« on: Yesterday at 23:16:19 »
I'm disinclined to participate further because I actually find the question a bit offensive. Many of us on the "left" were always skeptical of the Common Market and more so of the EU. It happens that enough folk on the "right" agreed, for whatever reason (assuming that rightwingers are capable of reason) that they were able to push the government into a referendum on the subject, and the majority of the public shared my view.
So far, so good, but thanks to the bizarre means by which the Conservative party elects its parliamentary leader that left us with a series of pro-EU prime ministers contractually obliged to leave the EU, faced with an anti-EU opposition leadership contractually obliged to oppose whatever the government proposed. So the government half-heartedly negotiated our withdrawal from the political trough whilst not actually admitting that the Opposition and their own back benchers really had the public mood but couldn't express it. Meanwhile Romeo, disguised as a princess.....
The effect of incompetent negotiation has been a shambolic mess in Ireland, no benefit from "border control", and a gradual retreat from the potentially beneficial review and abolition of EU-based laws.
So far, so good, but thanks to the bizarre means by which the Conservative party elects its parliamentary leader that left us with a series of pro-EU prime ministers contractually obliged to leave the EU, faced with an anti-EU opposition leadership contractually obliged to oppose whatever the government proposed. So the government half-heartedly negotiated our withdrawal from the political trough whilst not actually admitting that the Opposition and their own back benchers really had the public mood but couldn't express it. Meanwhile Romeo, disguised as a princess.....
The effect of incompetent negotiation has been a shambolic mess in Ireland, no benefit from "border control", and a gradual retreat from the potentially beneficial review and abolition of EU-based laws.
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New Theories / Re: Where does quantization of energy of electromagnetic radiation come from?
« on: Yesterday at 22:55:53 »
No. It means that a quantum of radiation has a particular energy, and that energy is directly related to the frequency of the wave that models the propagation of that quantum.
My car is blue. That doesn't mean that all blue cars are mine, or that all blue things are cars.
My car is blue. That doesn't mean that all blue cars are mine, or that all blue things are cars.
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Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology / Re: why do a lot of people confuse between interference and diffraction?
« on: Yesterday at 22:50:43 »
One. The difference is that an oscillation has both positive and negative excursions about the equilibrium, whereas a pulse is a unidirectional displacement followed by a return to equilibrium.
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New Theories / Re: Where does quantization of energy of electromagnetic radiation come from?
« on: Yesterday at 14:16:34 »
You could ad a photon with 0.5f to the box, but it would still be a whole photon.
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Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology / Re: why do a lot of people confuse between interference and diffraction?
« on: Yesterday at 14:11:28 »So the lowest frequency that might propagate as a reflected longitudinal wave is 15 times the fundamental of the highest-pitched open string - that's not "rich" but "squeaky", and the harmonics are mostly beyond human auditory range.It does on a guitar, because the ends are fixed. You might somehow induce a travelling or compression wave with a magnetic excitation of a steel string but the resulting frequency (MHz) will be far too high to contribute to the "wide rich sound...."I'd like to see the maths on that. Take the average guitar string as having a length of 1 metre and the speed of sound in steel to be 5km/sec
Longitudinal standing compression waves are generated in wind instruments, not stringed ones.
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New Theories / Re: Where does quantization of energy of electromagnetic radiation come from?
« on: Yesterday at 08:53:36 »
hf is the energy of a photon. Obviously if you have more photons in a box, you have more energy in the box. That doesn't mean that energy is quantised, only that photons are.
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Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology / Re: why do a lot of people confuse between interference and diffraction?
« on: Yesterday at 08:48:23 »
What has reflection to do with diffraction?
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Chemistry / Re: Why Choose Full Lace Remy Hair Bundles?
« on: Yesterday at 08:46:27 »
More BS from AI?
SPAM is very useful for catching fish, and some kids like to eat it, but I wouldn't put it on my head.
SPAM is very useful for catching fish, and some kids like to eat it, but I wouldn't put it on my head.
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New Theories / Re: Where does quantization of energy of electromagnetic radiation come from?
« on: 08/06/2023 23:58:32 »Planck's energy equation E = n.h.f,Where does the n come from? E = hf in my universe. But that doesn't mean energy is quantised. Planck's model describes the energy levels available to a particle constrained in a box. Obviously if you have two particles with the same frequency in the box, you have twice as much energy, but the box can be any size you like and a free particle can have any amount of energy you care to give it.
So haviong establioshed, for the umpteenth time, that energy is not necessarily quantised, we have reduced the question "where does the quantisation come from" tothe same level of pointlessness as "why are unicorns born feet-first?"
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Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology / Re: why do a lot of people confuse between interference and diffraction?
« on: 08/06/2023 17:36:39 »
It does on a guitar, because the ends are fixed. You might somehow induce a travelling or compression wave with a magnetic excitation of a steel string but the resulting frequency (MHz) will be far too high to contribute to the "wide rich sound...."
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Plant Sciences, Zoology & Evolution / Re: Has natural selection been nullified in humans ?
« on: 08/06/2023 17:31:29 »
Everyone now has a legal right to reproduce, and everyone else has a duty to keep the offspring alive 'cos of its Yuman Rights, so on average the species will be getting less fit and more selfcongratulatory..
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Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology / Re: Talking about Physics
« on: 08/06/2023 17:27:57 »But a gentleman wouldn't draw attention to it, surely?nobody has ever insulted me with the title of philosopher!I had assumed you were a PhD.
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Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology / Re: Talking about Physics
« on: 07/06/2023 09:23:37 »Philosophy tries to decide which questions are meaningful; Physics just does some experiments.No. Philosophers assert which questions are meaningful, then question the meaning of meaningful until they disappear through their own anal sphincters. Physics is about discovering and predicting useful and interesting stuff.
As an experimental physicist I'm quite used to the banter of engineers ("bloody scientist...") and theoretical scientists ("oily-fingered engineer...") but nobody has ever insulted me with the title of philosopher!
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Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology / Re: Talking about Physics
« on: 07/06/2023 09:14:47 »What does the existence of energy mean, anyway?Physics is the business of constructing mathematical models of what happens (or doesn't happen - the branch of physics known as civil engineering). Within those models, energy is a conserved quantity in classical physics, and remains conserved as mass-energy in relativistic physics. Nothing more or less.
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Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology / Re: Are there any philosophical or other implications to the underlying randomness
« on: 07/06/2023 09:08:09 »So the decay of the nucleus is only of significance when it is measured (to my mind) and this "measurement" is a synonym with "interaction"A whiff of anthropocentrism here! The decay of a nucleus is of huge consequence to the nucleus itself, which ceases to exist or spawns daughters, even if there is no observer.
A lot of philosophical nonsense derives from the technical term "observer" that we use in science simply to denote a plane in spacetime through which information passes.