Talk:Cross section (physics)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It seems to me, that this definition of the cross section is not exactly what is understood in nuclear physics. If we speak about differential cross section - we mean some fix value (for selected: projectile, target, energy, outgoing angle). It should not depend on detector. Lok for example to hyperphysics: http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/Hbase/nuclear/nucrea.html

The cross section connects number of reactions (per unit time) with the number of incidents ( per unit time per area). Morover, in the first definition should not be dsigma/do but total sigma.

Jaromrax 1:21, 29 January 2008 (CET)

	Portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Physics, which collaborates on articles related to physics.
???	This article has not yet received a rating on the assessment scale. [FAQ]
???	This article has not yet received an importance rating within physics.
Help with this template Please rate this article, and then leave comments to explain the ratings and/or to identify its strengths and weaknesses.

I made an attempt at basic cleanup by adding an intro paragraph and letting the rest be in sections below. I am not a physicist however, so the efforts of anyone who can make sure I didn't oversimplify or otherwise screw it up would be appreciated. Knotnic 15:14, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

I guess I'll take a stab at this one too after I get the scattering article. The concept of event cross section isn't restricted to nuclear and particle physics. It's a much more generalized idea than that. Tarchon 00:49, 5 April 2006 (UTC)

I was doing my Physics homework and this page popped up. I noticed that it claimed the Nuclear Diameter to be 10⁻¹² cm. Nuclear Diameter is actually measured in fm (femto-meters) which is 10⁻¹⁵ m, or 10⁻¹³ cm. Nuclear Radius is 10⁻¹² cm. This unfortunatly makes the next sentence confusing: πr² to give the correct size of a barn as 10⁻²⁴ cm² or 10⁻²⁸ m². Karplusan 03:28, 22 May 2006 (UTC)

I agree with Tarchon. Cross section is a general concept used in many areas and has it's own page to which we can add explanation of the phenomonon, physical meaning, mysteries of, and the like. Nuclear cross section is a specific type of cross section which I think should have it's own page because in the nuclear field this parameter is given a certain symbol (lowercase sigma), and even within that there are several divisions and sub-divisions of nuclear cross sections which could be subheadings on this page or have their own page, such as neutron cross section (which exists as its own page already), absorbtion cross section (separate page merged with general absorbtion spectrum information), gamma cross section... maybe even proton cross sections (which is why I found this page because I was trying to find information on it for a research project). I added a few things to the page on nuclear cross section which are commonly used in this field, and it could definitely be expanded much more. ~Aquamarine19 (~AK 11:02, 14 December 2006 (UTC))

[edit] flux

please, specify what do you mean by flux --WISo 16:48, 13 April 2007 (UTC)