Heisenberg ’s definition of hisuncertainty principle(“The more on the dot the situation is determine , the less precisely the momentum is known in this instant , and vice versa ” ) may not be straightaway clean , but here ’s a simple example that somehow makes it all outstandingly easy to grasp .
In response to a Kinja - discussion on the explanation that at last made us really get scientific principles , commenterVineshared this helpful lesson that helped them really get one of the slipperier concepts in theoretical physics :
I think it was my college oculus track when I lastly really understood the uncertainty principle ( the position / momentum version , not The Measurement Problem ) . The professor was explaining how photons are wave packets , and that there was a fundamental uncertainty about their position and frequence . you may translate momentum straight into the frequency knowledge base , so it ’s really the same problem . The explanation goes something like this :
Imagine that you have a perfect hell wave , to see it ’s frequency , just measure the distance between two moving ridge peaks of adequate bounty and invert . But where is the sin wave ? To be a perfect hell undulation , it has to be of infinite length , so in a very substantial room , it does n’t have a view .
Now imagine a Dirac delta function ( a function of infinite amplitude at a single compass point ) , it has an exceedingly exactly defined position , but how do we measure the frequency ? It has only one summit , so there ’s no ‘ between ’ to measure . Therefore , in a material elbow room , it has no frequency .
So now consider the average case , a wave mail boat has a frequency , but the vizor are at different amplitudes , so there ’s ambiguity . Do we measure the peaks at the center of the packet ? From goal to final stage and ordinary ? There ’s no right answer , and the deviation between those possible answers is the error step , or uncertainty , in the absolute frequency . likewise , where is the mailboat ? is it at the central peak ? Does it have length from end to last ? that distance is also doubtfulness .
And now it ’s dead obvious why there is ( and must be ) a trade off in dubiety between perspective and oftenness . As the package make broader the frequency becomes more well define , but the perspective becomes more ambiguous . As the packet gets narrower , the definition of position becomes sharper , but the frequency becomes more equivocal . interpret back into a momentum land , it ’s easy to see why uncertainty is a profound attribute of cathartic .
Image : Werner Heisenberg lecturing viaLindau Nobel merging
Physics
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