Physics, Pixelated
What Is the Spin–Statistics Theorem?
The spin–statistics theorem ties a particle’s spin to the symmetry of its quantum state. Integer spin → bosons (symmetric); half-integer spin → fermions (antisymmetric). Fierz (1939) and Pauli (1940) made...
What Is the Spin–Statistics Theorem?
The spin–statistics theorem ties a particle’s spin to the symmetry of its quantum state. Integer spin → bosons (symmetric); half-integer spin → fermions (antisymmetric). Fierz (1939) and Pauli (1940) made...
How Does a Foucault Pendulum Prove Earth Rotates?
A long pendulum’s swing plane slowly turns relative to the floor. Foucault showed in 1851 that the turn is Earth’s rotation made visible. The rate is 360° times the sine...
How Does a Foucault Pendulum Prove Earth Rotates?
A long pendulum’s swing plane slowly turns relative to the floor. Foucault showed in 1851 that the turn is Earth’s rotation made visible. The rate is 360° times the sine...
How Does Gravity Bend Light? Einstein Rings and...
Gravity bends light because spacetime is curved. The 1919 eclipse measured the Sun’s deflection; Einstein’s 1936 note foresaw stellar lenses; modern telescopes image Einstein rings. Here is the physics without...
How Does Gravity Bend Light? Einstein Rings and...
Gravity bends light because spacetime is curved. The 1919 eclipse measured the Sun’s deflection; Einstein’s 1936 note foresaw stellar lenses; modern telescopes image Einstein rings. Here is the physics without...
Who Started Quantum Mechanics? Planck, Bohr and...
Quantum theory did not begin with one paper. Planck quantized energy in 1900, Bohr quantized the atom in 1913, and Heisenberg’s 1925 matrix mechanics plus the 1927 uncertainty relation made...
Who Started Quantum Mechanics? Planck, Bohr and...
Quantum theory did not begin with one paper. Planck quantized energy in 1900, Bohr quantized the atom in 1913, and Heisenberg’s 1925 matrix mechanics plus the 1927 uncertainty relation made...
Did Cecilia Payne Discover What Stars Are Made Of?
Cecilia Payne’s 1925 thesis showed that stars differ mainly in temperature, not composition, and that hydrogen and helium vastly outnumber everything else. She then called that result “almost certainly not...
Did Cecilia Payne Discover What Stars Are Made Of?
Cecilia Payne’s 1925 thesis showed that stars differ mainly in temperature, not composition, and that hydrogen and helium vastly outnumber everything else. She then called that result “almost certainly not...
What Is the Cosmic Microwave Background? The Ol...
Every direction you look, the sky glows faintly in microwaves at 2.725 kelvin. That glow is light released about 380,000 years after the Big Bang. Here is how it formed,...
What Is the Cosmic Microwave Background? The Ol...
Every direction you look, the sky glows faintly in microwaves at 2.725 kelvin. That glow is light released about 380,000 years after the Big Bang. Here is how it formed,...