Questions tagged [applied-physics]
227 questions
53
votes
5 answers
Freefall into snow
In the movie Frozen, the following dialogue takes place:
Anna: "It's a hundred-foot drop."
Kristoff: "It's two hundred."
Anna: "Okay, what if we fall?"
Kristoff: "There's 20 feet of fresh powder down there. It will be like landing on a pillow...…
user3932000
- 1,167
45
votes
8 answers
Fourier transformation in nature/natural physics?
I just came from a class on Fourier Transformations as applied to signal processing and sound. It all seems pretty abstract to me, so I was wondering if there were any physical systems that would behave like a Fourier transformation.
That is, if…
Justin L.
- 6,090
25
votes
2 answers
Is frequent opening of the fridge really so significant for the power consumption?
I've read several popular articles telling that frequent opening of the fridge highly increases the power consumption.
Is it really so significant? Isn't the heat in the room-temperature food which is brought to the fridge so much more relevant that…
Honza Zidek
- 516
20
votes
3 answers
Are there any inventions/applications in our world based on QFT?
Are there nowadays any actual devices or experimental applications which are based on the quantum field theory and if so, how are they related to QFT?
I could not find any similar question besides this one.
Statics
- 1,230
17
votes
4 answers
What will happen if we add salt to boiling water?
I would like to have a good understanding of what is happening when you add salt to boiling water.
My understanding is that the boiling point will be higher, thus lengthening the process (obtaining boiling water), but at the same time, the dissolved…
Cedric H.
- 4,856
16
votes
5 answers
Calculating temperature when it is lower than your thermometers can read?
We have an old freezer. I believe the thermostat is broken and think it may run all the time. Food in it gets really cold (Ice cream like concrete). I've tried measuring the temp with a freezer thermometer, but the needle is well below the lowest…
PStallings
- 163
14
votes
4 answers
Practical applications for a Bose-Einstein condensate
What are the main practical applications that a Bose-Einstein condensate can have?
Andy Bale
- 2,017
13
votes
2 answers
Do Microwave oven heating times grow linearly with Wattage? Calculating optimal heating time
So this is a completely random and trivial question that was prompted by looking at my microwave oven and the back of a TV dinner and my google searching failed to produce a meaningful answer so figured I'd ask here.
On my TV dinner box it has…
David Stinemetze
- 233
13
votes
2 answers
Minimum speed that a bike won't fall over
I thought about this when riding the bike today:
What is the minimum speed I have to go that my bike won't fall over with a given angle $\alpha$ of tilt, diameter $d$ and weight $m$ of a tire (let's say the bike tilts 30 degrees at maximum when…
juliangst
- 163
13
votes
1 answer
How and why would a glass table break in this manner?
Recently, a relative of mine came to me asking me to explain a strange physics phenomenon. She had 3 glass tables; 2 small and one large arranged neatly such that the small tables were half enclosed under the larger one. She recounted to me that one…
Jim
- 24,676
10
votes
5 answers
Are there any practical applications of the uncertainty principle
I believe GPS works because of extremely small time differences between the satellites. Because of how small the time differences are, it needs to take into account gravity's effect on time. Although gravity warping time seems very far fetched in…
zgirod
- 737
9
votes
1 answer
What is a capacitive screen sensing?
What should be a properties of a body so a contact with it can be detected by a capacitive touchscreen or a touchpad?
user68
8
votes
2 answers
Physics of "force spreading" on impact on a surface
Consider a plate $P$ of thickness $d$ (for example a plate of wood) laying on a hard surface $S$ (for example on concrete floor). Suppose you have a maximum value of pressure $p_{\mathrm{max}}$ $S$ could tolerate before it fails in some way. Suppose…
Sarah
- 191
8
votes
1 answer
How does a silencer of a gun work?
I want to know the science behind the working of the silencer of a gun. Does it decreases the speed of the bullet?
Vidit Kulshreshtha
- 103
- 1
- 4
8
votes
0 answers
Real world applications of post-1950s High Energy Physics
Imagine a world where people knew everything we know today except for high energy physics, where their knowledge ends at our ~1950s level. Is there any real world application, any particular piece of technology, that we currently have or that is…
otimes
- 81
- 2