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Calculations Involving Significant Figures [02/22/2002]

My physics class is having a fair amount of trouble with significant digits.

Carbon Dating [05/27/1999]

Bones A and B are x and y thousands of years old, respectively. Bone A contains three times as much Carbon 14 as bone B. What can you say about x and y?

Carbon Dating the Shroud of Turin [05/16/2000]

In 1988, scientists found that the Shroud of Turin contained 91% of the amount of carbon-14 contained in freshly made cloth of the same material. How old is the Shroud according to the data?

Card Stacking Problem [06/10/2006]

Is it possible to stack a deck of cards so that the top card on the stack does not overlap the bottom card at all?

Center of Mass of a Disk with a Hole [02/19/2001]

A circle of radius R with center (0,0) has a smaller circle of radius R/2 and center (R/2,0) removed from its side. Where is the center of mass of the remaining piece?

Centripetal Acceleration [05/05/1997]

When a vehicle is going around a curve, are the forces balanced?

Centroid - Center of Gravity [03/25/2002]

Can a triangle have a unique centre of gravity?

Chaos Theory and the Pendulum [12/31/2001]

How is chaos theory related to physics?

Circular Motion and Acceleration [12/03/1999]

How can an object experiencing circular motion always be accelerating toward the center if the distance from the center is constant?

Coefficient of Friction [10/17/1997]

An explanation of static and kinetic friction.

Colliding Balls [04/28/1998]

A 5 kg ball attached to a pendulum is let go from a 45 degree angle causing the 5 kg ball to collide with an adjacent 3 kg ball...

Collision of Two Circular Objects [02/02/2002]

If I have two coins moving across a frictionless surface, knowing their velocity and angles, how can I find the angle of each object after they collide?

Combining Multiple Signals in Data Transmission [02/18/2001]

How can a cable carry so much information? How can data carriers compress multiple signals and then pull them apart again?

Combining Ohm's Laws Formulas [04/12/2001]

In electronics, there are two main formulas, V = I*R and P = V*I. How can I combine these to get formulas like P = I^2*R?

Comparing Collisions [05/20/2002]

How does a head-on collision between two cars moving at 35 mph compare to a collision between a wall and a car moving at 70 mph?

Compressing a Spring - Hooke's Law [08/09/1999]

What work is required to compress a spring from a natural length of 4m to 2m if a force of 6N is required to compress it to 3.5m?

Computing Apparent Mass From Rest Mass and Speed [05/27/2002]

How can I compute the change in mass for a moving object? And why does the change appear to be zero for speeds like 20 mph?

Converting Fluid Velocity [09/08/2002]

I have to convert fluid velocity, m^3/s, to linear velocity, m/s, but I don't know how to convert m^3 to m.

Converting mW to dB [06/14/2001]

I found this equation during a radio receiver discussion: 4x10-12mW = - 114dBm. How does it equate?

Convex Lens Algebra [11/09/1998]

A focused image from a convex lens is projected on a screen at 3x magnification. What is the focal length of the lens?

Correcting a Speedometer for a New Wheel Diameter [11/28/2000]

A speedometer was designed for a wheel diameter of 65 cm. When a 75 cm wheel is used, the information from the road speed sensor is wrong. How must the input frequency to the sensor be adjusted for accuracy?

Coulomb's Law and Particle Repulsion [09/26/2004]

Two electrons are located 0.08 picometers from each other. Calculate the force of repulsion between them.

Curl of a Vector Field [05/22/1999]

What does the term curl mean in math, and how do we define it in terms of fluid mechanics?

Cylinder on an Inclined Plane [12/17/1997]

Is there a formula to determine the time it will take for a uniform cylinder to travel a distance along an incline of varying degrees?

Daylight Hours and Latitude [1/9/1995]

How does the number of daylight hours on a given day of the year depend on latitude?

Degrees of Freedom [12/17/2002]

What is meant by 'degrees of freedom'?

Density of a Stone [09/14/2002]

A stone having a mass of 160 g displaces the level of water in a cylinder by 30 mL. Find the density of the stone.

Deriving Distance from the Energy Conservation Law [7/6/1995]

How do we get S = So+0.5*v*t^2+Vo*t, for a free-falling object, from the energy conservation law?

Deriving the Arcsin Formula [01/24/1999]

Why is the arcsin(A) = pi/2 + bi, for some b? How can you derive the inverse sine formula (i.e.: arcsin)?

Development of Einstein's Equation [06/02/1999]

What equations and principles did Einstein use to come up with the equation e = mc^2?

Difference in Radius, Difference in Speed [06/25/2002]

What is the difference in speed between a point on the tread of a tire and another point closer to the center, if the tire is rotating at 5000 rpm?

Differentiation Problem [11/15/1997]

A light shines from the top of a pole 50 ft. high. A ball is dropped from the same height at a point 30 ft. away from the light...

Digital Compass [08/23/2002]

How does a digital compass work?

Distance to the Sun [04/16/1999]

Find the distance from Earth to the sun when t = 90 days...

Doppler Effect and Math [6/1/1996]

How is the Doppler Effect related to mathematics?

Earth's Balance [12/20/2001]

Why would Earth change its orbit and turning if something as heavy as the Ross Iceshelf moved up some amount of miles?

Earth's Rotational Speed [6/24/1996]

Should the earth's rotational speed be referred to in revolutions per... or in miles per hour?

Effective Force Exerted by a Moving Mass [08/23/2001]

Determine how much force a mass of 1000 lbs. moving at 50 inches/sec will exert on an object in its path about 0.1 inches from where it started (assuming it was moving at the specified velocity throughout the 0.1" distance).

Effect of Gravity on a Stalled Jet [09/05/1997]

If a 747 jet is flying at 30,000 feet and the engines stop working, will it glide to a reasonably safe landing? Or will it fall straight down?

Eigenvalues [12/18/1998]

What is an eigenvalue and how is it used?

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