That dim spot of light represents the photon or other atomic particle which tunnels through the wall. p115 In the animation to the right, you can see a faint white puff on the right side of the wall after a big puff hits the wall from the left. However, electrons can move through solid walls. In our everyday life, people cannot move through walls. p114 Another interesting uncertainty phenomenon, which makes possible many electronic devices, is called quantum tunneling. American physicist Brian Greene gave the analogy of a moth which flies placidly around in a large closet but who flies frantically back and forth and up and down when placed in a glass jar. However, if the box were made smaller then we would have a more certain idea of where it was located, and because of that we would have to have a less certain idea of how it was traveling. Heisenberg's idea is that if something like an electron were shot into a big box with a certain speed and in a certain direction, then it would be possible to calculate a fairly accurate idea of what its path would be like in the future. However, many other scientists disagree with Einstein. That is, he thought that there is no "uncertainty" in nature, and that the uncertainty exists only in our knowledge about it. p99 He thought that Heisenberg's discovery showed that human knowledge is limited, but he also thought that nature is absolute. p96Īlbert Einstein thought that such a quantum theory could give us only a partial description of nature. Certain pairs of measurements such as (a) where a particle is and (b) where it is going (its position and momentum) cannot be precisely pinned down. It relates to measurements of sub-atomic particles. Heisenberg's uncertainty principle is one of the most important results of twentieth century physics.
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