Site icon Vern Bender

CHAOS & UNCERTAINTY ABOUND IN THE UNIVERSE

THE UNCERTAINTY PRINCIPLE was first introduced in 1927 by the German physicist WERNER HEISENBERG. It states that the more precisely the position of a particle is determined, the less precisely its momentum can be predicted from initial conditions, and vice versa.

Historically, the uncertainty principle has been confused with a related effect in physics, called the observer effect.  (Making a measurement of a system, affects the system.)

The uncertainty principle actually states a fundamental property of quantum systems and is not a statement about the observational success of current technology.

The wave mechanics picture of the uncertainty principle is more visually intuitive.  The more abstract matrix mechanics picture plans it in a way that generalizes more easily. The position and momentum of a particle can’t be simultaneously measured with arbitrary, high precision.     Subatomic events have to be predicted using probability. You can’t measure any property of a particle without interacting with it in some way.  Uncertainty will result. The more accurately we know the energy of a body, the less accurate we know how long it possessed that energy. VERN BENDER        VERN BENDER      VERN BENDER    
Exit mobile version