TREKS IN SCI-FI FORUM

Main Decks => Science Stuff => Topic started by: alanp on April 11, 2012, 05:54:10 PM

Title: What are your views on the Heisenberg uncertainty principle?
Post by: alanp on April 11, 2012, 05:54:10 PM
I've recently gotten back into astronomy for the first time since college so I can discuss it at work.  I listened to the audio book (I love the audio book format) of Stephen Hawking's Brief History of Time over the weekend.  And I'm not sure what to make of this Uncertainty Principle:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncertainty_principle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncertainty_principle)

Einstein was a critic, claiming "God doesn't play dice."

I know some of you are really into science, what do you think?
Title: Re: What are your views on the Heisenberg uncertainty principle?
Post by: turtlesrock on April 11, 2012, 06:29:11 PM
i think it makes sense as far as principles go, i've just kinda accepted it as fact, i don't really have any opinions on it :P
Title: Re: What are your views on the Heisenberg uncertainty principle?
Post by: X on April 12, 2012, 05:58:05 AM
Makes perfect sense. You can't know where every molecule is with perfect certainty. Think about it like this. think of all the billions of cells in the human body, then think of all of the molecules in those cells. You really can't measure where every molecule is in space/time.

Add to the fact that observation on a quantum level influences particle behavior and it make even more sense. When the very act of looking at something changes how that something behaves on a quantum level, then accurate measurement for the near infinite amounts of particles in the human body alone would be near impossible. And even if you could measure them all at once, all at the same time, the measurements would shift as soon as you stopped looking.