On Wednesday, December 28, 2005, at 02:39 PM, Jon Wennerberg wrote:
>> Werner Heisenberg (of the uncertainty principle) is pulled over by the
>> police for speeding one night. The police officer asks the professor,
>> "Do you have any idea how fast you were going?"
>>
>> Heisenberg replies, "No, but I know exactly where I am."
>
Okay, here's the rest of the story, snipped from Wikipedia:
"In quantum physics , the Heisenberg uncertainty principle states that
one cannot assign with full precision values for certain pairs of
observable variables , including the position and momentum , of a
single particle at the same time even in theory. It furthermore
precisely quantifies the imprecision by providing a lower bound
(greater than zero) for the product of the standard deviations of the
measurements. The uncertainty principle is one of the cornerstones of
quantum mechanics and was discovered by Werner Heisenberg in 1927 ."
In other words, (at either relativistic (near-light) speeds or at the
quantum level) you can determine EITHER where something is -- or how
fast it's moving -- but NOT BOTH.
Happy New Year, boys and girls.
Jon Wennerberg
Seldom Seen Slim Land Speed Racing
Marquette, Michigan
(that's 'way up north)
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