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arXiv2015

Judo the roads to Ippon

In this invited lecture the biomechanical analysis of tactical tools utilized by top athletes in high level competition is presented. In the first part, the lecture starts with a very short summary of the researches carried out on biomechanics, thermal exchange and metabolic energy expenditure related to judo throwing technique. In the second part it is developed the specific analysis of the technical tactical support tools.These tools allow to enhance the effectiveness of the athletes special throwing techniques,Tokui Waza,increasing the probability to obtain Ippon. The last part of the lecture emphasizes,the physics and biomechanics connected to judo competition that is defined as:an interacting complex nonlinear system, with chaotic and fractals aspect.This system must be analyzed studying the motion of couple of athletes system and evaluating their interaction,throws.Brownian tools are today the actual most sophisticated way of modeling motion in competition, starting from fractals till to multifractals aspects.If we study the specific mechanics of several throwing action in real competitions we can face some interesting physical aspects not totally well known, like almost plastic collision between extended bodies and for some Lever techniques we have to solve dynamical problem of bodies with variable mass that differs from the well known Classical Mechanics with constant mass. In effect, in such a situation,the general methodological approach of mechanics must be properly modified; considering a deformable body with a finite extension, where special emphasis is given to the variable rotational inertia during throw, with interesting consequences about balance, linear and rotational momentum and motion of center of mass.

physics.pop-ph↗

arXiv2015

Black Holes and the Scientific Process

Arguably, black hole is perhaps the most popular scientific term among the lay person. Perhaps it is the phrasing of the term 'black hole' which appeals to the popular imagination, offering some exotic visual of a cosmic object to the mind's eye.

physics.pop-ph↗

arXiv2015

Teleparallelism: A New Way to Think the Gravitational Interaction

At the time it celebrates one century of existence, general relativity---Einstein's theory for gravitation---is given a companion theory: the so-called teleparallel gravity, or teleparallelism for short. This new theory is fully equivalent to general relativity in what concerns physical results, but is deeply different from the conceptual point of view. Its characteristics make of teleparallel gravity an appealing theory, which provides an entirely new way to think the gravitational interaction.

physics.pop-ph↗

arXiv2015

Cognitive science and the connection between physics and mathematics

The human mind is endowed with innate primordial perceptions such as space, distance, motion, change, flow of time, matter. The field of cognitive science argues that the abstract concepts of mathematics are not Platonic, but are built in the brain from these primordial perceptions, using what are known as conceptual metaphors. Known cognitive mechanisms give rise to the extremely precise and logical language of mathematics. Thus all of the vastness of mathematics, with its beautiful theorems, is human mathematics. It resides in the mind, and is not `out there'. Physics is an experimental science in which results of experiments are described in terms of concrete concepts - these concepts are also built from our primordial perceptions. The goal of theoretical physics is to describe the experimentally observed regularity of the physical world in an unambiguous, precise and logical manner. To do so, the brain resorts to the well-defined abstract concepts which the mind has metaphored from our primordial perceptions. Since both the concrete and the abstract are derived from the primordial, the connection between physics and mathematics is not mysterious, but natural. This connection is established in the human brain, where a small subset of the vast human mathematics is cognitively fitted to describe the regularity of the universe. Theoretical physics should be thought of as a branch of mathematics, whose axioms are motivated by observations of the physical world. We use the example of quantum theory to demonstrate the all too human nature of the physics-mathematics connection: it is at times frail, and imperfect. Our resistance to take this imperfection sufficiently seriously [since no known experiment violates quantum theory] shows the fundamental importance of experiments in physics.

physics.pop-ph↗

arXiv2015

Confusion around the tidal force and the centrifugal force

We discuss the tidal force, whose notion is sometimes misunderstood in the public domain literature. We discuss the tidal force exerted by a secondary point mass on an extended primary body such as the Earth. The tidal force arises because the gravitational force exerted on the extended body by the secondary mass is not uniform across the primary. In the derivation of the tidal force, the non-uniformity of the gravity is essential, and inertial forces such as the centrifugal force are not needed. Nevertheless, it is often asserted that the tidal force can be explained by the centrifugal force. If we literally take into account the centrifugal force, it would mislead us. We therefore also discuss the proper treatment of the centrifugal force.

physics.pop-ph↗

arXiv2016

Colloquium on the Higgs Boson

In 2013 the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to Francois Englert and Peter Higgs for their development in 1964 of the mass generation mechanism (the Higgs mechanism) in local gauge theories. This mechanism requires the existence of a massive scalar particle, the Higgs boson, and in 2012 the Higgs boson was finally observed at the Large Hadron Collider after being sought for almost half a century. In this pedagogical article we review the work of these Nobel recipients and discuss its implications. We approach the topic from the perspective of a dynamically generated Higgs boson that is a fermion-antifermion bound state rather than an elementary field that appears in an input Lagrangian. In particular, we emphasize the connection with the BCS theory of superconductivity. We identify the double-well Higgs potential not as a fundamental potential but as a mean-field effective Lagrangian with a dynamical Higgs boson being generated through a residual interaction that accompanies the mean-field Lagrangian. We discuss what we believe to be the key challenge raised by the discovery of the Higgs boson, namely determining whether it is elementary or composite, and suggest that the width of the Higgs boson might serve as a suitable diagnostic for discriminating between an elementary Higgs boson and a composite one.

physics.pop-ph↗

arXiv2015

Quantum entanglement

Expository paper providing a historical survey of the gradual transformation of the "philosophical discussions" between Bohr, Einstein and Schrödinger on foundational issues in quantum mechanics into a quantitative prediction of a new quantum effect, its experimental verification and its proposed (and loudly advertised) applications. The basic idea of the 1935 paper of Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) was reformulated by David Bohm for a finite dimensional spin system. This allowed John Bell to derive his inequalities that separate the prediction of quantum entanglement from its possible classical interpretation. We reproduce here their later (1971) version, reviewing on the way the generalization (and mathematical derivation) of Heisenberg's uncertainty relations (due to Weyl and Schrödinger) needed for the passage from EPR to Bell. We also provide an improved derivation of the quantum theoretic violation of Bell's inequalities. Soon after the experimental confirmation of the quantum entanglement (culminating with the work of Alain Aspect) it was Feynman who made public the idea of a quantum computer based on the observed effect.

physics.hist-ph↗

arXiv2015

The Resonator Banjo Resonator, part 2: What makes them really crack?

A simple experiment quantifies the difference between the sound production of a banjo with and without a resonator back. Driven by a small tweeter mounted inside the pot, for frequencies above about 4500 Hz, the produced external sound is 6 to 10 dB louder with the resonator than without. With the banjo played in any normal fashion, this gives a negligible contribution to the overall volume. However, that difference is clearly a reflection of the universally recognized resonator sound, in close analogy to plosive consonants in human speech. No direct correlation is observed between the head-resonator separation and the spectrum of the enhanced response. This suggests that direct reflection off the back is not a primary contributor to the resonator/openback difference, leaving differences in overall absorption as the major suspect.

physics.pop-ph↗

arXiv2016

Modeling crowdsourcing as collective problem solving

Crowdsourcing is a process of accumulating the ideas, thoughts or information from many independent participants, with aim to find the best solution for a given challenge. Modern information technologies allow for massive number of subjects to be involved in a more or less spontaneous way. Still, the full potentials of crowdsourcing are yet to be reached. We introduce a modeling framework through which we study the effectiveness of crowdsourcing in relation to the level of collectivism in facing the problem. Our findings reveal an intricate relationship between the number of participants and the difficulty of the problem, indicating the optimal size of the crowdsourced group. We discuss our results in the context of modern utilization of crowdsourcing.

physics.soc-ph↗

arXiv2015

Micro moon versus macro moon: Brightness and size

The moon, moonlight, phases of the moon and its relatively simple recurring cycle has been of interest since time immemorial to the human beings, navigators, astronomers and astrologers. The fact that its orbit is elliptical as well its plane is inclined with the plane of rotation of the earth gives rise to new moon to full moon and solar and lunar eclipses. During the phase of the full moon, the luminous flux and its apparent size will depend on its distance from the earth. In case it is at farthest point known as lunar apogee causes smallest full moon or micro full moon and if it is closest to us termed as lunar perigee will result in macro full moon, also known as super moon, a term coined by astrologer Richard Nolle in 1979. The theoretical expressions for the lunar luminous fluxes on the earth representing the power of lunar light the earth intercepts in the direction normal to the incidence over an area of one square meter are derived for two extreme positions lunar apogee and lunar perigee. The expressions for the apparent sizes of full moons corresponding to said positions are also mentioned. It is found that full perigee moon is about 29 percent brighter and 14 percent bigger than the full apogee moon consistent with the reported values.

physics.pop-ph↗

arXiv2015

A Pedagogical Model of Static Friction

While dry Coulombic friction is an elementary topic in any standard introductory course in mechanics, the critical distinction between the kinetic and static friction forces is something that is both hard to teach and to learn. In this paper, I describe a geometric model of static friction that may help introductory students to both understand and apply the Coulomb static friction approximation.

physics.pop-ph↗

arXiv2015

At What Distance Can the Human Eye Detect a Candle Flame?

Using CCD observations of a candle flame situated at a distance of 338 m and calibrated with observations of Vega, we show that a candle flame situated at ~2.6 km (1.6 miles) is comparable in brightness to a 6th magnitude star with the spectral energy distribution of Vega. The human eye cannot detect a candle flame at 10 miles or further, as some statements on the web suggest.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2015

Avrocar: a real flying saucer

One of the most unusual military aircraft programs V / STOL was the Avro VZ-9 "Avrocar". Designed to be a real flying saucer, the Avrocar was one of the few V / STOL to be developed in complete secrecy. Despite significant changes in the design, during flight tests, the Avrocar was unable to achieve its objectives, and the program was eventually canceled after an expenditure of 10 million US dollars between 1954 and 1961. But the concept of a lift fan, driven by a turbojet engine is not dead, and lives today as a key component of Lockheed X-35 Joint Strike Fighter contender. Was held in a data research and information related to Avrocar project carried out during the Second World War, which was directly linked to advances in aircraft that were built after it, and correlate them with the turbo fan engines used today.

physics.pop-ph↗

arXiv2015

The Multiperiodic Pulsating Star Y Cam A as a Musical Instrument

In this study we generate musical chords from the oscillation frequencies of the primary component of oscillating eclipsing Algol system Y Cam. The parameters and the procedure of the musical chord generation process from the stellar oscillations are described in detail. A musical piece is also composed in appropriate scale for Y Cam A by using the generated chords from the results of the asteroseismic analysis of the stellar data. The music scores and the digital sound files are provided for both the generated chords and the musical composition. Our study shows that the further orchestral compositions can be made from the frequency analysis results of several pulsating stars by using the procedure stated in present study.

physics.pop-ph↗

arXiv2015

Study Pelamis system to capture energy of ocean wave

Over the years, energy has become vital for humans, enabling us to comfort, leisure, mobility and other factors. The quest for cheap energy sources, renewable and clean has grown in recent years, mainly for the reduction of effects that comes degrading nature, allowing scientists and engineers to search for new technologies. Many energy sources have been researched for proper funding where some stand out for their ease of obtaining, by other low cost and others by being renewable. The main objective of this work is to study one of these energy sources - wave energy, whose capture is still in development. This energy comes from the waves of the sea and is 100% renewable and with minimal environmental impact when compared to hydro, nuclear, coal, thermal, etc. The system studied here is the Pelamis system.

physics.pop-ph↗

arXiv2015

Revising the Musical Equal Temperament

Western music is predominantly based on the equal temperament with a constant semitone frequency ratio of $2^{1/12}$. Although this temperament has been in use since the 19th century and in spite of its high degree of symmetry, various musicians have repeatedly expressed their discomfort with the harmonicity of certain intervals. Recently it was suggested that this problem can be overcome by introducing a modified temperament with a constant but slightly increased frequency ratio. In this paper we confirm this conjecture quantitatively. Using entropy as a measure for harmonicity, we show numerically that the harmonic optimum is in fact obtained for frequency ratios larger than $2^{1/12}$. This suggests that the equal temperament should be replaced by a harmonized temperament as a new standard.

physics.pop-ph↗

arXiv2015

Comparing Terminal Performance of .357 SIG and 9mm Bullets in Ballistic Gelatin Using Retarding Force Analysis from High Speed Video

High-speed video has emerged as an valuable tool for quantifying bullet performance in ballistic gelatin. This paper presents the results of testing four .357 SIG bullets using high-speed video of bullet impacts in ballistic gelatin to determine retarding force curves, permanent cavities, temporary cavities, and energy deposit vs. penetration depth. Since the methods are identical, results are meaningfully compared with four 9mm NATO bullets studied in an earlier project. Though .357 SIG bullets perform slightly better due to higher impact energy, the principal finding is that there is a much bigger difference in performance between the best and worst performing bullets in each cartridge than there is between bullets of similar design in the two cartridges. In each cartridge, higher performing expanding bullets (jacketed hollow points) outperform non-expanding bullets (full metal jacket) by a wide margin, showing a much higher probability of rapid incapacitation according to an Army Research Laboratory model by Neades and Prather (1991).

physics.pop-ph↗

arXiv2015

Energy and matter

Our work is an approach between matter and energy. Using the famous equation E = mc^2, Einstein and the Law of Universal Gravitation of Newton, we estimate that a small amount matter converted into energy is needed to lift, using the gravitational potential energy equation on the surface, a mountain of solid iron or even Mount Everest.

physics.pop-ph↗