" The Heisenberg Uncertainty Priciple: you cannot know the momentum of a
" sub-atomic particle. You can know its velocity, or its mass, but not both.
Errr....not quite.
HUP is:
delta(p)delta(x) > some_number
delta(p) is the uncertainty (or error) on your knowledge of the
particle's momentum and delta(x) is the uncertainty on your knowledge
of the particle's position. You can muck around with various factors
in "p" and "x" and make HUP look like:
delta(E)delta(t) > some_number
E=energy and t=time
But really, it's the same thing.
So, what's it all mean? Basically, it means that you can't ever know
anything about the particle's momentum or position perfectly...and the
more perfectly you know something about one thing, the less perfectly
you can know the other.
I guess it's a subtle difference, but being a particle physicist I just
couldn't let it pass. Sorry. :)
" This also holds true for certain other quantum effects, such as the spin
" and location of electrons, and to certain super-atomic structures, such as
" a Bose-Einstein condensate.
Bose-Einstein condensates don't really have much to do with HUP I believe.
(I'm stepping out of my speciality, so I'm more than willing to be corrected
if I'm wrong) The deal with B-E stuff is that the particles making it up
are bosons as opposed to fermions...bosons like being in the same state
and fermions dislike being in the same state (Pauli exlusion principle).
It's a quantum effect, but I don't believe one uses HUP to understand it.
" Requisite Olympus content: as applied to photography, the Heisenberg
" Uncertainty Principle dictates that you can know it's great photography
" weather, or you can have your Olympus gear with you, but not both.
In my case, I can have the right weather, but usually have the wrong
film with me for the weather. :) Either that or I just simply don't know
what I'm doing. Hummm...maybe for me it's, you can have the right
weather, but you can't know what you are doing.
--
Sean Mattingly | What is, is
---------------------- | What is not is possible
matting@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx | Only what is not is possible
http://www-zeus.desy.de/~matting/ | -Einstuerzende Neubauten
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