Posts tagged with

physics

A quick one containing the derivation of the Rossby modes of a 2d fluid on the surface of a sphere.

Starting from the common experience of hearing an object bouncing off the ground, I build a simplified model to compute the amount of energy being lost by the object along its course. This leads me to ponder about the possibility that the object could experience an infinite amount of rebounds in a finite amount of time.

I give a short description of dimensional analysis and how it can be used to check the mathematics of computations in physics and also how it can be used to simplify the equations by getting rid of constant parameters.

The equations that describe the dynamics of a point particle in space must be adapted when the motion is observed from an accelerated frame of reference. I give an illustration of this by considering the motion of a free particle relative to a frame rotating at a constant angular velocity around the origin of coordinates.

Euclid's axioms describe the geometry of shapes and curves in simple mathematical spaces which are called *flat*. When one considers more complex spaces, these axioms are no longer adequate. I illustrate this by looking at the special case where the mathematical space is a *two-sheet hyperboloid*.

I talk about the mathematics describing what happens when a massive objects is accelerated at a steady rate and how it behaves when its velocity approaches that of light using the principles of special relativity.