Heisenberg Principle

Werner Heisenberg physicist and creator of the Heisenberg Principle, better known as the uncertainty principle, was born December 5, 1901 in Wurzburg, Bavaria, in Germany. Heisenberg had a known “reputation for controversial solutions to problems in quantum theory”, (The Sad Story of Heisenberg’s Doctorate, David Chassidy). While working at Niel Bohrs lab in Copenhagen studying “theoretical investigations into quantum theory and the nature of physics” (PBS.org), Heisenberg stumbled across what now is known as the “uncertainty principle”. A principle that describes through using the example of measuring the properties of electrons with light or radiation as a measuring device, that you can only measure one property at a time, because when measuring the position the energy would throw off the momentum, and when measuring the momentum it would in turn throw off the position. Basically stating the idea that only one quantum variable can be measured at a time, and in order to determine the other variables it is necessary to use mathematical formulas. Formulas that include the following, “the uncertainty of energy multiplied by uncertainty in time, or uncertainty in position multiplied by the uncertainty in momentum”, (Dan Sewell Ward), which is greater than or equal to a constant “h”. A principle which at first glance is a little confusing and can be described by the New York Times as “like trying to tell an Eskimo what the French language is like without talking French”.( Waldemar Kaemppfert 1927). It is merely impossible to describe the theory in words or pictures, and can more easily be described only through mathematical equations. Many for this reason have yet to be persuaded that Heisenberg’s principle holds truth and an article from Slate magazine states, “No scientific idea from the last century is more fetishized, abused, and misunderstood—by the vulgar and the learned alike—than Heisenberg's uncertainty principle.”(Jim Holt 2002). Perhaps what puzzles many more is not the equation itself but how Heisenberg was able to produce this equation so easily.