arfa brane:
Understanding the what, of what happens in the electron diffraction experiments, means I think understanding the difference between an elastic and an inelastic collision; right James?
Wrong. By why not address your question to all members of the forum? Why single me out?
In the first case momentum is conserved, in the second it isn't.
Wrong again.
Although, it means James will have to also explain that any material surface, in physics, is an elastic surface. It's why guitar strings vibrate, for instance.
Define "elastic surface" for me, please. And how is a guitar string a "surface"?
Can you give an example of a surface that is not elastic.
What does it mean for a surface to be elastic?
You are a science dick, exchemist.
Please don't call names. It is against out site posting guidelines.
The elasticity in the surface is the surface tension.
So when you say "elastic surface", you just mean any surface with surface tension? So, liquids only, then?
Because coins don't usually fall through solid wood doesn't mean you can't find something that will.
Can
you find something that will?
Oh hey, you skipped over the other thing I said, about explaining why a fluid rebounds (responds), like water does when you drop that pebble in . . .
What thing was that?
That's usually called an impulse function, you know, in the time domain.
You've lost me. What's called an impulse function in time domain?
You can ignore the pebble and focus on what the water does. So, what does it do, does it rebound elastically?
What do you mean by "elastically"?
You might have seen that old film of the Tacoma Narrows bridge collapsing, because of insufficient damping.
The main problem there was the resonance. I suppose you can talk about insufficient damping of the specific resonant mode, if you like.
The elastic response in the steel beams approached a critical resonance point--the bridge began to output too much power in its frequency spectrum. It couldn't radiate it away, and eventually a section gave and took the rest with it.
Radiate it away?
Because all crystalline solids, Greek marble included, are made of atoms that are connected together by 'springy' bonds--all materials and their surfaces, are elastic.
Define "elastic".
That means all materials, including gases, respond elastically to a sudden impulse.
Define "elastically".
The impulse is an elastic function...
Define "impulse" and "elastic function".
...so an inelastic collision means something was exceeded, a critical point was reached and energy gets lost as a new equilibrium is reached in the system.
Hint: what, exactly, is not conserved in an inelastic collision?
It's like this; suppose you have a pristine length of stainless steel pipe. not a mark on it.
If you tap it with a little force using a metal hammer or striker, it rings (the elastic response in the metal is radiated away as sound waves).
Define "elastic response".
If you really whack it and deform the surface, leave a dent, that's inelastic because, although mass has been conserved, heat was generated by the friction.
So something was lost? What was lost?
Take the idea of thermodynamic annealing back to dots appearing over time, on a screen, and there we have it.
There we have what?
Here's another interesting factoid about springs.
Metal springs are annealed so they are like standing waves of elastic material.
In what way are they "like" standing waves?
When you extend a spring (within a linear range), it pulls back with that elastic force thing, -kx. It also rotates with one end fixed. The rotation is a response to the linear deformation.
Waves and rotations are closely connected ideas, oh yea.
And so...?
Anyhoo I thought I'd may as well announce how this idea of quantum annealing...
This idea that you've just mentioned for the first time?
...means you get a dot's worth of interference pattern so you 'age the screen' . . . then what would it cost to erase a dot? Each dot is there because that part of the screen absorbed the bulk of an electron's forward momentum.
What kind of screen are you talking about? What kind of dot?
If you look again at the example of aging a metal pipe, if you make a mark what kind of information is in it and what would it cost to erase the mark?
What kind of mark are you talking about?
It does seem to hinge somewhat on whether you accept that scratching or denting a metal surface is storing information. I guess I could manage.
So you're talking about a scratch or a dent? How are you measuring the "information"?
