In classical mechanics, a harmonic oscillator is a system that, when displaced from its equilibrium position, experiences a restoring force F proportional to the displacement x:
In electrodynamics, elliptical polarization is the polarization of electromagnetic radiation such that the tip of the electric field vector describes an ellipse in any fixed plane intersecting, and normal to, the direction of propagation. An elliptically polarized wave may be resolved into two linearly polarized waves in phase quadrature, with their polarization planes at right angles to each other. Since the electric field can rotate clockwise or counterclockwise as it propagates, elliptically polarized waves exhibit chirality.
The Box–Muller transform, by George Edward Pelham Box and Mervin Edgar Muller, is a random number sampling method for generating pairs of independent, standard, normally distributed random numbers, given a source of uniformly distributed random numbers. The method was in fact first mentioned explicitly by Raymond E. A. C. Paley and Norbert Wiener in 1934.
In mathematics, theta functions are special functions of several complex variables. They are important in many areas, including the theories of Abelian varieties and moduli spaces, and of quadratic forms. They have also been applied to soliton theory. When generalized to a Grassmann algebra, they also appear in quantum field theory.
In telecommunications, particularly in radio frequency, signal strength refers to the transmitter power output as received by a reference antenna at a distance from the transmitting antenna. High-powered transmissions, such as those used in broadcasting, are expressed in dB-millivolts per metre (dBmV/m). For very low-power systems, such as mobile phones, signal strength is usually expressed in dB-microvolts per metre (dBμV/m) or in decibels above a reference level of one milliwatt (dBm). In broadcasting terminology, 1 mV/m is 1000 μV/m or 60 dBμ.
Projectile motion is a form of motion experienced by an object or particle that is projected near the Earth's surface and moves along a curved path under the action of gravity only. This curved path was shown by Galileo to be a parabola, but may also be a straight line in the special case when it is thrown directly upwards. The study of such motions is called ballistics, and such a trajectory is a ballistic trajectory. The only force of mathematical significance that is actively exerted on the object is gravity, which acts downward, thus imparting to the object a downward acceleration towards the Earth’s center of mass. Because of the object's inertia, no external force is needed to maintain the horizontal velocity component of the object's motion. Taking other forces into account, such as aerodynamic drag or internal propulsion, requires additional analysis. A ballistic missile is a missile only guided during the relatively brief initial powered phase of flight, and whose remaining course is governed by the laws of classical mechanics.
Mohr–Coulomb theory is a mathematical model describing the response of brittle materials such as concrete, or rubble piles, to shear stress as well as normal stress. Most of the classical engineering materials somehow follow this rule in at least a portion of their shear failure envelope. Generally the theory applies to materials for which the compressive strength far exceeds the tensile strength.
In trigonometry, tangent half-angle formulas relate the tangent of half of an angle to trigonometric functions of the entire angle. The tangent of half an angle is the stereographic projection of the circle onto a line. Among these formulas are the following:
In geometry, a rhombohedron is a three-dimensional figure with six faces which are rhombi. It is a special case of a parallelepiped where all edges are the same length. It can be used to define the rhombohedral lattice system, a honeycomb with rhombohedral cells. A cube is a special case of a rhombohedron with all sides square.
A photon sphere or photon circle is an area or region of space where gravity is so strong that photons are forced to travel in orbits. The radius of the photon sphere, which is also the lower bound for any stable orbit, is, for a Schwarzschild black hole:
A pendulum is a body suspended from a fixed support so that it swings freely back and forth under the influence of gravity. When a pendulum is displaced sideways from its resting, equilibrium position, it is subject to a restoring force due to gravity that will accelerate it back toward the equilibrium position. When released, the restoring force acting on the pendulum's mass causes it to oscillate about the equilibrium position, swinging it back and forth. The mathematics of pendulums are in general quite complicated. Simplifying assumptions can be made, which in the case of a simple pendulum allow the equations of motion to be solved analytically for small-angle oscillations.
In continuum mechanics, a material is said to be under plane stress if the stress vector is zero across a particular plane. When that situation occurs over an entire element of a structure, as is often the case for thin plates, the stress analysis is considerably simplified, as the stress state can be represented by a tensor of dimension 2. A related notion, plane strain, is often applicable to very thick members.
Tribimaximal mixing is a specific postulated form for the Pontecorvo–Maki–Nakagawa–Sakata (PMNS) lepton mixing matrix U. Tribimaximal mixing is defined by a particular choice of the matrix of moduli-squared of the elements of the PMNS matrix as follows:
This uniform polyhedron compound is a symmetric arrangement of 6 cubes, considered as square prisms. It can be constructed by superimposing six identical cubes, and then rotating them in pairs about the three axes that pass through the centres of two opposite cubic faces. Each cube is rotated by an equal angle θ.
The compound of eight octahedra with rotational freedom is a uniform polyhedron compound. It is composed of a symmetric arrangement of 8 octahedra, considered as triangular antiprisms. It can be constructed by superimposing eight identical octahedra, and then rotating them in pairs about the four axes that pass through the centres of two opposite octahedral faces. Each octahedron is rotated by an equal angle θ.
The compound of four octahedra with rotational freedom is a uniform polyhedron compound. It consists in a symmetric arrangement of 4 octahedra, considered as triangular antiprisms. It can be constructed by superimposing four identical octahedra, and then rotating each by an equal angle θ about a separate axis passing through the centres of two opposite octahedral faces, in such a way as to preserve pyritohedral symmetry.
In Einstein's theory of general relativity, the interior Schwarzschild metric is an exact solution for the gravitational field in the interior of a non-rotating spherical body which consists of an incompressible fluid and has zero pressure at the surface. This is a static solution, meaning that it does not change over time. It was discovered by Karl Schwarzschild in 1916, who earlier had found the exterior Schwarzschild metric.
Bimaximal mixing refers to a proposed form of the lepton mixing matrix. It is characterized by the neutrino being a bimaximal mixture of and and being completely decoupled from the , i.e. an uniform mixture of and . The is consequently a uniform mixture of and . Other notable properties are the symmetries between the and flavours and and mass eigenstates and an absence of CP violation. The moduli squared of the matrix elements have to be:
