Chronology | Current Month | Current Thread | Current Date |
[Year List] [Month List (current year)] | [Date Index] [Thread Index] | [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] | [Date Prev] [Date Next] |
The water flowing out through the side hole is analogous to the
particles in the environment outside the wire that have picked up energy
from the particles inside the wire. The particles inside the wire have
transferred the part of their energy that's due to the transverse
component of their motion to the particles outside the wire. Therefore,
the calorimeter experiment measures _only_ the part of the energy of the
particles inside the wire that is due to the _transverse_ component of
their velocity. Similarly, the current experiment measures _only_ the
part of the energy of the particles inside the wire that is due to the
_longitudinal_ component of their velocity. The reason that the two
experiments come out with the same result is that, on average, the
transverse and longitudinal components of the velocity are equal.