Monthly Archives: July 2013

Q: What does it mean for light to be stopped or stored?

Posted on July 29, 2013 by The Physicist

Physicist: We’ve gotten a handful of questions since this was published and led to articles like this, this, and, this.  In a nutshell, some dudes in Germany (Georg Heinze, Christian Hubrich, and Thomas Halfmann) have found a method to shoot … Continue reading →

Posted in -- By the Physicist, Computer Science, Entropy/Information, Experiments, Physics, Quantum Theory | 14 Comments

Q: What are quasi-particles? Why do phonons and photons have such similar names?

Posted on July 22, 2013 by The Physicist

Physicist: Prefixes like “quasi-“, “psuedo-“, and sometimes “meta-” are basically used to mean “sorta like… but different… you know?”.  Quasiparticles behave like particles in a few fairly important ways, but aren’t actual particles at all.  The most important way, and … Continue reading →

Posted in -- By the Physicist, Particle Physics, Physics, Quantum Theory | 13 Comments

The nuptial effect

Posted on July 10, 2013 by The Physicist

Every day, on average, 2-3 physicists get married.  On Saturday I’ll be attempting to push that average to as high as 3-4. So (for our regular readers), there’ll be a longer gap between posts than usual.  The future Mrs. Physicist … Continue reading →

Posted in -- By the Physicist, Combinatorics, Evolution | 23 Comments

Q: How do you prove that the spacetime interval is always the same?

Posted on July 3, 2013 by The Physicist

The original question was: Here’s my current dilemma: how does one rigorously prove the invariance of the space-time interval?  In Taylor & Wheeler’s Spacetime Physics, they basically show one very good example of the invariance, then they instruct the reader … Continue reading →

Posted in -- By the Physicist, Geometry, Math, Relativity | 19 Comments