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In this short presentation, we address two somewhat separate issues. The first one deals with the establishment (vs discovery) of what we call "physical laws". The discussion runs on a "successive approximations" approach, suited to our own…
The purpose of the following paper is to demonstrate that the "limits of physics" are in a very important way determined by the conceptual framework and language of discourse that we use to describe physical reality. In this paper we…
The treatment of time in relativity does not conform to that in quantum theory. In the context of quantum gravity this is called "the problem of time". A crucial difference is that time $t$ may be seen as an observable in relativity theory,…
Teaching physics in real-life contexts continues to be a challenge for teachers at different educational levels. In this article, three Context-Rich Problems are proposed to be implemented in the classroom for higher education, using the…
The concept of the random discretization of the space-time is suggested. It is the way to consistent compatible synthesis of quantum and relativistic principles and principle of geometrization. The basic idea of this concept is physical…
The physical world is quantum. However, our description of the quantum physics still relies much on concepts in classical physics and in some cases with `quantized' interpretations. The most important case example is that of spacetime. We…
It is widely hoped that quantum gravity will shed light on the question of the origin of time in physics. The currently dominant approaches to a candidate quantum theory of gravity have naturally evolved from general relativity, on the one…
The problem of obtaining a realistic, relativistic description of a quantum system is discussed in the context of a simple (light-cone) lattice field theory. A natural stochastic model is proposed which, although non-local, is relativistic…
From the equivalence principle (EP) and experiments on gravitational (G) time dilation (GTD) it is proved that the standards of observers located in different ``distances'' from the earth are physically different with respect to each other.…
I discuss the influence of adding the air resistance and the kinetic friction to the classical mechanics homework-problem: finding the motion of a body sliding down a hemispherical hill. For a physically realistic ($\propto v^2$) form of…
A goal of physics is to understand the greatest possible breadth of natural phenomena in terms of the most economical set of basic concepts. However, as the understanding of physics has developed historically, its pedagogy and language have…
Although cosmic expansion at very small distances is usually dismissed as entirely inconsequential, these extraordinarily small effects may in fact have a real and significant influence on our world. A calculation suggests that the minute…
This essay examines our fundamental conceptions of time, spacetime, the asymmetry of time, and the motion of a quantum mechanical particle. The concept of time has multiple meanings and these are often confused in the literature and must be…
This paper identifies and confirms a perceptual phenomenon: when users interact with simulated objects in a virtual environment where the users' scale deviates greatly from normal, there is a mismatch between the object physics they…
The motion of water filled bottles is studied when it is thrown into the air and falls back to the floor, including the possibilities of an upright landing or rolling down before it finally reaches static state. When dealing with the…
Quantum theory and relativity offer different conceptions of time. To explore the conflict between them, we study a quantum version of the light-clock commonly used to illustrate relativistic time dilation. This semiclassical model combines…
What is physics? What are the limits of what physics can say about the world? In seeking ever-broader theoretical `umbrellas' for physical phenomena, we are seeking unifying principles. Emergent phenomena have turned out to be some of the…
The quantum version of the free fall problem is a topic often skipped in undergraduate quantum mechanics courses because its discussion usually requires wavepackets built on the Airy functions -- a difficult computation. Here, on the…
This is a short note to announce the availability of some movies that may be useful in classroom discussions on the photographic appearance of objects moving at relativistic speeds. The images are based on special relativity with no account…
Bouncing jets are fascinating phenomenons occurring under certain conditions when a jet impinges on a free surface. This effect is observed when the fluid is Newtonian and the jet falls in a bath undergoing a solid motion. It occurs also…