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The distance from a focus to a conic section along a line perpendicular to its symmetry axis. In focus-centred polar coordinates, an ellipse may be written $r(1-e\cos \theta )=\ell$, where $e$ is its eccentricity of a conic.

The distance from a focus of a conic section to the curve measured perpendicular to its principal axis. In the focus-based polar coordinates equation $r=p/(1+e\cos \varphi )$ it is the length $p$, where $e$ is the eccentricity. For an ellipse, $p=a(1-e^2)=b^2/a$. For a Newtonian Kepler orbit, $p=j^2/(GM)$ with $j$ the specific angular momentum.

A sphere of radius $R$ settling in a stationary cylindrical tube of radius $R+d$, with $d\ll R$ and zero net through-flow, has leading speedThe neck gap is $H(z)=d+z^2/(2R)$. In the sphere frame, leading bypass flux per circumferential length is $q\simeq UR/2$; wall-motion transport is smaller by $d/R$. The pressure-driven flux through a parabolic lubrication gap gives $\Delta p=9\pi \mu UR\sqrt{2R}/(4d^{5/2})$. Pressure dominates the sphere drag, $F\simeq \pi R^2\Delta p$, and balancing $F$ against $4\pi R^3\Delta \rho g/3$ proves the speed. Tube end conditions allowing appreciable net flow change the bypass balance and can give other drag regimes.

Unroll a circular cylinder of radius $R>0$ using the coordinate $u=R\varphi$. Its line element becomes $d{s}^2=d{u}^2+d{z}^2$, so a geodesic lifts to a straight line in the plane. An endpoint has infinitely many lifts differing by $2\pi Rk$. Minimize the ordinary Euclidean distance over those lifts to obtain the unrestricted shortest path. A fixed lift instead specifies a winding class and need not give the global shortest path.

For angular difference $0\le \delta \le 2\pi$, put $m=\min (\delta ,2\pi -\delta )$. Then $d=\sqrt{R^2{m}^2+(z_1-z_0{)}^2}$. At $\delta =\pi$, two different geodesics have the same shortest length. This is the source of the corner in the distance-versus-angle graph at the opposite generator of the circular cylinder.

Two triangles are similar if a Euclidean similarity maps one onto the other. Their corresponding angles agree, and corresponding side lengths have a common positive ratio.

Specify the correspondence first: $A$ matches $A^{\prime }$, $B$ matches $B^{\prime }$ and $C$ matches $C^{\prime }$. For similar triangles, the common scale factor $k>0$ satisfiesThe ratios compare matching sides in the same order. A Euclidean similarity can also move, turn or reflect the triangle; its orientation on the page is irrelevant. In the Euclidean plane, matching just two interior angles is enough: their sums force the third to match, and equal corresponding angles force the side ratios to agree. This is the angle-angle (AA) criterion for similar triangles. Matching just one angle is insufficient.

Scale the right triangle with vertices $(0,0)$, $(4,0)$ and $(0,3)$ by $k=2$. Its new vertices are $(0,0)$, $(8,0)$ and $(0,6)$, and its side lengths are $6,8,10$. The matching side ratios are $6/3=8/4=10/5=2$. Both triangles have a right angle and the same two other interior angles, approximately $36.87^{\circ }$ and $53.13^{\circ }$. However, their areas are $3\cdot 4/2=6$ and $6\cdot 8/2=24$: doubling lengths multiplies area by four.

Generally, a Euclidean similarity multiplies both a base and its perpendicular height by $k$, so the area becomes $\frac{1}{2}(kb)(kh)=k^2\frac{1}{2}bh$. This explains why an enlarged drawing needs four times as much surface when each length doubles. It also enables indirect measurement: under assumptions of level ground, vertical objects and parallel light rays, an object of height $3$ casting a shadow of length $4$ provides a right triangle. Another object's shadow of length $8$ gives a similar triangle and height $3(8/4)=6$. The shared angles justify the inference; visual resemblance alone does not.

Euclid's Elements VI, Definition 1 describes similarity using corresponding angles and proportional sides. VI.4 establishes the implication from matching angles to matching side ratios, while VI.19 states the squared relation between side ratios and areas. These are documented ancient formulations of the principles used above, without establishing a first discoverer.^{[ref][ref][ref]}

A uniform elastic beam with endpoint conditions $y=y_{xx}=0$ has normal modes $\sin (n\pi x/L)$ for positive integers $n$. Substitute $y=X{e}^{-i\omega t}$ into $EI{y}_{xxxx}+{\rho }_{\ell }{y}_{tt}=0$ and impose the four endpoint conditions to obtain the displayed spectrum. Here ${\rho }_{\ell }$ is mass per unit length, $I$ is a second moment of area, and $EI$ is bending stiffness. frequencies proportional to $n^2$ distinguish flexural waves from the nondispersive ideal stretched string.

A homogeneous DNA zipper permitting exactly one contiguous paired block of length $j\ge 1$ has $N-j+1$ block positions and weight $\kappa s^{j-1}$. Consequently its partition function is $q=\kappa {\sum }_{j=1}^N(N-j+1)s^{j-1}=\kappa [s^{N+1}-(N+1)s+N]/(s-1{)}^2$. The removable value at $s=1$ is $\kappa N(N+1)/2$. At large s, $q\sim \kappa s^{N-1}$. Including an unpaired state gives the full partition function $1+q$; the large-s limit is not uniform in arbitrarily small initiation weight.

The skin depth is the distance over which a field amplitude falls by $e^{-1}$ inside a conductor. In the local good-conductor limit, $\delta =\sqrt{2/(\mu \sigma \omega )}$. Intensity then falls by $e^{-2}$ over one skin depth; amplitude and intensity penetration lengths differ by a factor two.

The local skin friction coefficient normalizes wall shear stress by the outer dynamic pressure:For the ideal Blasius boundary layer on one face of length $L$, averaging the local skin friction coefficient gives ${\overline{c}}_f\simeq 1.328230/\sqrt{{\mathrm{Re}}_L}$. The factor of two follows from integrating $x^{-1/2}$, not from counting both plate faces. Drag on two equally exposed faces doubles when the reference area remains that of one face.

PHYWE's documented experiment uses a one-metre slide wire, a connection box, an unknown resistor, a known comparison resistor, a supply, and a digital multimeter in steady-current mA mode as the null detector. Its two yellow detector leads join the fixed-resistor junction and the slider. Move the slider until the indicated electric current vanishes; read the two wire lengths on the ruler and infer the unknown electrical resistance from their ratio. The guide advises changing the comparison resistor if no null is reachable or the slider lies near an end.^[ref]

The inference requires uniform electrical resistivity and wire cross-sectional area, so the two wire electrical resistances have the ratio of their lengths, by $R={\rho }_{\mathrm{el}}L/A$. Retaining PHYWE's labeling, its equation (6) is $R_x=R_C{\ell }_1/{\ell }_2$, where $R_C$ is the comparison electrical resistance. This is a different arm placement from our schematic. The guide's example table reports larger discrepancies near wire ends.^[ref]

Useful additional controls distinguish a true null measurement from an insensitive or disconnected detector. Check the detector zero with the supply off, then move the adjustable arm slightly to either side of the candidate balance and verify opposite detector signs. Reconnect the unknown with short, secure leads and repeat the balance. Any lead or contact electrical resistance included in that arm contributes to the inferred value, even though a detector lead carries no electric current at exact balance. For very small unknown electrical resistances, four-terminal sensing addresses this separate connection problem; a detector null alone does not remove it.

Check for Joule heating by repeating at lower supply electric potential difference and with shorter powered intervals, holding ambient temperature fixed. At balance the unknown still dissipates powerHalving $V_s$ quarters this power while halving ideal detector sensitivity. A balance that moves with excitation or elapsed time suggests changing electrical resistance, including self-heating; it is not explained by passive detector loading alone. These are proposed controls, not claimed outcomes of PHYWE's experiment. Standard-resistor accuracy, wire uniformity, contact reproducibility and finite detector resolution still limit the electrical measurement. Large electrical resistances also make unwanted leakage paths consequential.

For a uniform core of path length $\ell$, a narrow air gap $d$, and $n$ winding turns, Ampère's circuital law gives $nI=\ell H_{\mathrm{core}}+dB/{\mu }_0$ when leakage and fringing are negligible. If a reversible branch has differential magnetic permeability ${\mu }_{\mathrm{core}}=dB/dH$, linearization gives $dB/dI=\kappa$. An offset in the operating branch changes the bias field, not this differential formula. For $B=B_m\tanh (H/H_m)$ at the origin, ${\mu }_{\mathrm{core}}=B_m/H_m$.

For a gravity-current nose of height $h_N$ on a small incline of slope $\theta$, the travelling front of a gravity-driven thin film satisfies $h_y=\theta (1-h_N^2/h^2)$. Close to its dry tip, $h\sim (-3\theta h_N^{2}y{)}^{1/3}$. The slope becomes order one at $h\sim \sqrt{\theta }{h}_N$, giving an $O(\sqrt{\theta }{h}_N)$ region where lubrication theory fails. The main nose length is $h_N/\theta$. Comparing capillary pressure gradients $\gamma h_N/(h_N/\theta {)}^3$ with gravitational forcing $\rho g\theta$ gives the crossover $h_N\sim \theta \sqrt{\gamma /(\rho g)}$. This concerns the main nose length; capillarity may already matter in a much smaller tip region.

For a nearly flat membrane represented by height $h(x)$, the quadratic bending-and-tension energy per invariant transverse length isIts free equilibrium equation is $k_c{h}_{xxxx}-\sigma h_{xx}=0$.

Suppose a finite simple polygon in the curvature-minus-one hyperbolic plane has hyperbolic geodesic sides paired to produce a closed topological surface. Its metric descends to a smooth hyperbolic metric exactly when paired polygon sides have equal lengths and the sum of internal angles in each vertex equivalence class is $2\pi$. Equal lengths allow isometric gluing at open edges; at vertices the sectors assemble into a hyperbolic disc precisely when their total angle is $2\pi$. Other positive total angles produce a cone singularity of a surface metric. The area of a hyperbolic geodesic polygon and the Gauss-Bonnet theorem then give area $-2\pi \chi$ for the closed surface.

The solar cycle is the recurrent variation of magnetic activity, with a characteristic sunspot-number period of about eleven years. The large-scale magnetic polarity reverses from one activity cycle to the next, giving an approximately twenty-two-year magnetic cycle. Activity cycles vary in length and amplitude. A satisfactory solar dynamo model must account for polarity reversal, equatorward activity-belt migration in the solar butterfly diagram, the phase relation between polar and active-region fields, and long-term modulation including solar grand minima.

A solenoid is a coil of electrical conductor, usually wire wound into a helix around a circular cylinder. The same electric current $I$ flows through its successive turns. Each turn contributes a magnetic field; the superposition principle makes their axial contributions reinforce inside the coil. Curl the fingers of your right hand in the direction of the electric current around the turns: the thumb gives the interior magnetic field direction by the right-hand rule. Throughout this branch, $N$ is the total number of turns, $\ell$ is the coil length, and $n=N/\ell$ is the solenoid turn density. ^[ref].

The attraction of a long solenoid is a controllable, nearly uniform magnetic field over an interior working region: change the electric current to tune its strength, or reverse the electric current to reverse its direction. This makes it a useful setting for studying the Lorentz force, measuring magnetic flux, and constructing an inductor. Its geometry turns the many contributions from individual turns into the simple long-solenoid approximation. A real finite coil has end fields and leakage; its exterior magnetic field is not zero. The on-axis magnetic field of a finite solenoid below quantifies that difference.

Historically, the coil helped connect magnetic fields to electric currents. In his memoir on the mathematical theory of electrodynamic phenomena, Ampère modeled the interactions of magnets using the ends of solenoids in place of microscopic magnetic constituents. This was a route toward explaining magnetism by electric currents, rather than a modern microscopic account of magnetization. ^[ref]. The historical setting is documented by the ^[ref].

For a suitable finite inverse-closed universal quantum gate set, the Solovay--Kitaev theorem approximates a fixed-dimensional unitary to operator norm error $\epsilon$ with a gate sequence of length polynomial in $\log (1/\epsilon )$.

For fixed real positive angular frequency $\omega$, a transverse Alfvén wave proportional to $e^{i(kz-\omega t)}$ in a uniform fluid has $k^2={\omega }^2/(v_A^2-i{\eta }_m\omega )$ when magnetic diffusivity ${\eta }_m$ is retained and viscosity is neglected. Choose the branch with positive real and imaginary parts for propagation and attenuation along $+z$. For $ϵ\ll 1$, $k=(\omega /v_A)(1+iϵ/2+O({ϵ}^2))$. The amplitude attenuation length is $L_A=1/\mathrm{Im}k$, whereas the energy attenuation length is $L_E=1/(2\mathrm{Im}k)$. With wavelength $\lambda =2\pi /\mathrm{Re}k$, $L_A/\lambda \sim 1/(\pi ϵ)$ and $L_E/\lambda \sim 1/(2\pi ϵ)$. Fixed-real-wavenumber temporal Resistive damping of an Alfvén wave is a different boundary-value prescription.

Loss of spatial overlap between interacting finite beams because their energy flux directions differ. In an anisotropic crystal, the direction of the Poynting vector need not coincide with the wave vector. For beam radius $w$ and relative walk-off angle $\rho$, an overlap length is of order $w/|\tan \rho |$. A full conversion calculation also includes beam profiles, diffraction and phase mismatch.