Article View: sci.philosophy.tech
Article #984Uncertainty in life
From: P. J. Narayanan
Date: Thu, 21 May 1987 23:44
Date: Thu, 21 May 1987 23:44
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I have this opinion about Heisenberg's uncertainty principle. The principle says that (in one of its forms), DELTA-p * DELTA-x >= h-bar / 2. I have complaints about the popular interpretation of this that you cannot know for certain the position and momentum of any body. This, while true, doesnot, in my opinion, imbibe all the deep meanings of the principle. Since the Right Hand Side is a number greater than 0, this equation suggests that you cannot measure the position (or momentum) of any body without any uncertainty in it. That is, DELTA-p or DELTA-x can never be *EQUAL* to 0. This suggests that you cannot know anything, repeat *ANYTHING*, for certain in this world. It seems to me that this inference is too strong a one philosophically, but really unavoidable from the equation. It also makes one think sbout the various notions men have about knowing things for certain and the practice of taking oath and testifying in a court of law etc. I would like to see some opinions on the net, highlighting the issues involved. How can we sort of "tune" the above inference to everyday life; avoiding very strong inferences?? P J Narayanan ------------- ______________________________________________________________________________ God told me yesterday that he really doesnot play dice! ______________________________________________________________________________
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Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!utzoo!mnetor!seismo!mimsy!brillig!pjn From: pjn@brillig (P. J. Narayanan) Newsgroups: sci.philosophy.tech Subject: Uncertainty in life Message-ID: <6762@mimsy.UUCP> Date: Thu, 21-May-87 19:44:18 EDT Article-I.D.: mimsy.6762 Posted: Thu May 21 19:44:18 1987 Date-Received: Sat, 23-May-87 12:54:24 EDT Sender: news@mimsy.UUCP Reply-To: pjn@brillig.UUCP (P. J. Narayanan) Organization: U of Maryland, Dept. of Computer Science, Lines: 39 Keywords: Heisenberg certain Summary: Nothing is certain