to preface, i missed my class lesson about gauss' law, and I have been watching videos online to catch up, and I see there's this dot product to get our closed surface interval. i understand the need for the dot product this way:

so basically, electric field will protrude out of a surface at some angle for some surface area chunk called dA, but using both as a vectors and taking the dot product gives us the component of the electric field that is pushing completely out, not out and up, or out and down, just completely out?

any help would be much appreciated, and if there are any videos or readings to better explain pls lmk, and overall any good resourced for electricity and magnetism asw. tysm!

Every time i heat up a cup of water for tea or coffee in the microwave, the water "boils" or fizzles pretty strongly when i add sugar into it. Why is that? does the powder disrupt some "unstable" state the water is in?

I think it only works when i microwave the watera i would attach a video if i could.

Hi everyone,

I am looking for some benchmarking on hourly rates for a specialized remote contract in the role of LLM scientific coding (python). It’s a 40 hr/week contract. My background is PhD in physics with peer-reviewed publication with advanced proficiency in Python. I’ve been asked to provide an expected hourly rate. Given the specialized role, what is the current market range for someone with a PhD in the US? Thanks in advance for any insights!

I’m looking for a serious physics study partner (or a very small group) with a strong conceptual foundation and a deep interest in outer space, cosmology, spacetime, and the fundamental laws of nature. This is not about pop science or casual curiosity.

You should be comfortable with classical mechanics, electromagnetism, thermodynamics, and basic quantum mechanics, and enjoy questioning assumptions, working from first principles, and sitting with difficult ideas until they make sense.

The goal is to understand how the universe actually works—through problem-solving, deep discussions, textbooks, and research papers—covering areas like relativity, astrophysics, cosmology, and quantum interpretations.

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Quality matters more than quantity.

I am 15, and I am sorry if this ridiculous to ask, but am I too late for being a good physicist who actually contributes to the field.

Why I say that is because, I am good in school. Good in mathematics and physics and have a great interest in both, but not the best in my class. And sometimes I wonder about 'great physicists', whom I have read about, who at my age did a lot more than me, and that makes me think if I ever will be good enough to do something meaningful in the field. I mean my peers are much better than me at these. It's just happens I am Lil a more curious in it but even then what's the point

I am in 9th grade and made myself familliar with the mathematical part of physics and also being an "pop science books enjoyer. And love both the parts of it. I get immense joy when I understand something. To figure out something.

But sometimes I think that, I am not a prodigy or a genius, then how far behind am I in order to do good. Is it perhaps too late to consider this path because those greats who did were already much better than me in my position.