Understanding The Uncertainty Principle

What is the Uncertainty Principle?

The Uncertainty Principle effectively involves two realms—the actual macroscopic world which we can observe with the naked eye (such as an automobile traveling through the city streets or a baseball traveling from the pitcher’s hand down the line over home plate), and the microscopic world for which we can only visualize with the assistance of sophisticated equipment (such as the germs which may invade our bodies infecting us with the common cold or the atoms which exist all around us creating, when packed together, the various macroscopic items which we can visualize). 

When we consider the things in our world which we can see without assistance, it is relatively easy to determine their position and it is relatively easy to determine how fast they are moving and in what direction.  For example, we can calculate the distance a car has travelled within a specific time frame to understand how fast the car was going.  Utilizing that basic information, we can then determine with relative accuracy (excluding stop lights, stop signs, and traffic for the purpose of this discussion) where the car was at any given point within that time frame.  The same holds true for the baseball.  We can determine, using the distance travelled and the time the ball took to cross home plate, how fast the ball actually travelled and, utilizing that basic information, we can place the ball at its specific point at any time during its travel with relative accuracy; in other words, E=MC2 (Energy = Mass times the Speed of Light times the Speed of Light). While there may exist some variance in our calculations, such variances will likely be sufficiently small that they will have little or no impact on our results. When we apply the Uncertainty Principle, however, such accuracy ceases to exist, and the reason for the flaw is not because we are unable to physically see the item measured but, rather, because gathering one measurement disrupts, or interferes with, the other measurement making the entire process unreliable and, in fact, impossible.  

When we examine particles which are too small to be viewed without sophisticated equipment, we are examining, in effect, particles on a wave which tend to move about more as the wave becomes more volatile—similar to how one could imagine a beach ball would behave if tossed around on an ocean wave.  If the beach ball is tossed around during a storm but, hypothetically, stays on the wave, the ball would eventually gain its own momentum as the wave became more intense (imagine the tumult a tsunami causes as it breaks shore).  Consequently, any attempt to measure the exact location of the ball as it travelled on the wave would interrupt its traveling speed, and an attempt to measure its traveling speed would interrupt its exact location on the wave.  When a subatomic particle, such as an electron, is measured, it is “expressed in terms of a particle’s momentum and position” and the ability to pinpoint its exact location on the wave interrupts its passage and renders the calculations to determine its location fruitless because “the more intense the undulations of the associated wave become . . . the more ill-defined becomes the wavelength, which in turn determines the momentum of the particle” (Schombert, 2012).  In effect, the more volatile the wave, the less determinative the location can be of the particle, by nature of it being carried on the wave (momentum), and the more volatile the wave, the less determinative the momentum can be due to the volatility of determining its location.  In essence, while one measurement can be determined—position or momentum—the measurement of one necessarily impacts the other rendering the ability to measure energy and time variables of particles uncertain and flawed (Cassidy, 2013).

How is the Uncertainty Principle useful in science?

The Uncertainty Principle is useful in science since it is central to the distinction between quantum and classical mechanics.  In summation, it allows scientists and philosophers to go beyond the perceivable world (classical mechanics) and delve into the world which contains particles so small they cannot be witnessed without sophisticated equipment (quantum mechanics).  It has allowed scientists to entertain Newtonian principles (as explored in A Beautiful Question) at the microscopic level by taking what is known about classical mechanics and applying those concepts to particles acting on wave-like behavior (Fefferman, 1983). Utilizing these approaches to measurement have allowed astronomers to detect planetary systems and actual earth-like planets when analysing their positions and movements from points of light received relative to other points of light.

How is the Uncertainty Principle useful in our daily lives?

Based on the last statement that scientists are able to utilize the Uncertainty Principles as a means to detect other planetary systems and actual earth-like planets which are often light years away, the Uncertainty Principle is useful in our daily lives as it allows us to associate frequency with time. Understanding the wave-pattern behavior and the particles’ response to the wave (whether such wave is localized or broad) can be enlightening when combined with the laws of thermodynamics, for example, in studying the current concerns of global warming.  Understanding the trickle down effect from particle movements in relation to the waves of thermodynamics may permit scientists to better anticipate the effects of attempts to hinder the progress and, possibly even reverse the damage already caused, by the inpact of humans on the planet such as global warming resulting in our current concerns toward climate changes (Schwartz, 2007).

References

Cassidy, P. D. (2013). Quantum mechanics: The uncertainty principle. American Institute of Physics. Retrieved from http://www.aip.org/history/heisenberg/p08.htm

Fefferman, C. L. (September 1983). The uncertainty principle. American Mathematical Society, 9(2), 129-206.

Schombert, P. J. (2012, October 22). Lecture on uncertainty principle. University of Oregon. Retrieved from http://abyss.uoregon.edu/~js/21st_century_science/lectures/lec14.html

Schwartz, A. T. (November 2007). Chemical education today. Journal of Chemical Education, 84(11) , 1,750-1,756.