Werner

Heisenberg

history. One person wrote: I describe the feeling as being thrust on the tip of a wave as it
comes into shore. It is one of being taken and carried in the moment, occupying a unique
space if only for an instant or a day, and then the world moves on and the next waves comes
along. Later Werner Heisenberg managed various positions traveling through Germany and
England giving lectures regarding theoretical physics and other subjects. He died of cancer of
the kidneys and gall bladder on February 1, 1976, he was 74 years old.

By Brendan Hagman

Heisenbergs uncertainty principle

Forms of Heisenbergs uncertainty principle:
xp > /2
Et > /2
Mr. Moody
ELA Blue Block One
6 October 2014

Wave-particle duality and the De Broglie hypothesis are important to understand the
uncertainty principle.

Werner Heisenberg was born in Wrzberg, Germany on

December 5th in 1901. He began playing the piano at age thirteen and playing master
compositions. His father was a secondary school teacher. He was a regular hiker and enjoyed
classical literature and philosophy. Werner Heisenberg studied physics and mathematics at the
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitt Mnchen and the Georg-August-Universitt Gttingeni from
1920 to 1923. He planned to study pure mathematics but after an interview with one of the
mathematics professors he chose to study theoretical physics. Arnold Sommerfeld admitted
him to an advaced seminar where Werner Heisenberg produced a publishable contribution to
old quantum theory of the atom. He earned his doctorate in 1923. He was one of the most
important figures in the development of quantum mechanics. Quantum Mechanics is the body
of physical law that describes the strange behavior of photons, electrons and other small
particles, this leads to very strange conclusions.

The Wave-Particle Duality of Light and Matter

Most commonly observed phenomena with light can be explained by waves, but
the photoelectric effect suggested a particle nature for light. Electrons were also discovered to
exhibit a dual nature. The details of the photoelectric effect were in direct contradiction to the
expectations of classical physics. Wave-particle duality shows that quantum-scale particles
show properties of waves and particles. Most commonly observed phenomena with light can
be explained by waves.

In 1927, Werner Heisenberg was in Denmark working at Niels Bohr's research

institute in Copenhagen. The two scientists worked closely on theoretical investigations into
quantum theory and the nature of physics and discovered the uncertainty principle in 1927. To
know the velocity of an object you must measure it, and to measure it, physicists are forced to
influence the particle. To measure the velocity of a particle such as an electron, you would
need to use a measuring device, typically light or radiation. But the energy in this radiation
affects the particle being observed. The same is true for observing the position of an object. If
you adjust the light beam to accurately measure position, its energy would influence the
momentum of the particle. He discoverd that the act of observing alters the object being
observed.

He suggested a unified field theory. In physics, forces can be described by fields

that mediate interactiosn between separate objects. In the mid-19th century James Clerk
Maxwell formulated the first field theory in his theory of electromagnetism. Then, in the early
part of the 20th century, Albert Einstein developed general relativity, a field theory of
gravitation. Physicists sill attempted to produce a unified field theory in which
electromagnetism and gravity would be shown as different aspects of a single fundamental
field. They could not do this, and today gravity remains beyond attempts at a unified field
theory.

De Broglie's Hypothesis
Start with the formula: E = mc = KE+mc or E = pcmc
A particle of zero rest mass: p=E/c
For a photon: p = hc/c = h/
(Photoelectrons are indistinguishable from other electrons.)

As you proceed downward in size to atomic dimensions the more wave-like it

becomes. You cannot find both the precise position and momentum of such a particle. When
you say that the electron acts as a wave, then the wave is the quantum mechanical
wavefunction and it is related to the probability of finding the electron at any point in space. A
perfect sinewave for the electron wave shows that probability throughout all of space, and the
position of the electron is completely uncertain.

The more precisely the position is determined, the less

Werner Heisenberg won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1932 at the age of 31. He
ranks alongside Niels Bohr, Paul Dirac and Richard Feynman as far as his influence on the
development of quantum physics. He was a major figure in the progress of quantum
mechanics. I have read that many people say that they feel good to contribute to humanity or

precisely the momentum is known in this instant, and vice

versa. --Heisenberg, uncertainty paper, 1927