The Uncertainty Principle
In the 1920s a scientist and mathematician named Heisenberg began publishing work on a concept that has become central to our understanding of quantum mechanics. It is the notion that we can never know with absolute accuracy the position and momentum of a particle.
This concept flew in the face of classical physics, which assumed all aspects of the physical world could be measured and known accurately to an absolute certainty. This had always been assumed to be true, at least in theory…there might be limitations on the equipment available to make these measurements, sure, but given powerful enough equipment all of these things could be known and definite.
But the work of Heisenberg and others showed that, no, the location and movement of a particle is not something we can know right now to an absolute certainty. An important distinction is that we can track and determine certainly the particle’s past position and momentum…what we cannot know definitely is its position and momentum in the present, and we cannot predict with certainty its future attributes.
As the last hundred years have rolled away, the uncertainty principle has become more and more accepted in the scientific community. If it is true that we can never know with absolute accuracy and precision some of the most basic facts about basic matter in our universe, then how much more does that truth apply to our lives, to people, and to our interactions with those people? I’m not saying we should always shrug our shoulders and answer that we can’t truly know anything, but I am saying the moments when we find ourselves the most cocky and confident in our knowledge are the same moments we should be mixing in healthy doses of self-scrutiny and self-skepticism.
Here endeth the lesson on the uncertainty principle.
Bike Newbie 