The Uncertainty principle is a principle of physics proposed by the famous physicist Heisenberg in 1927. This principle shows that in quantum mechanics, the position and momentum of particles cannot be determined at the same time, and are expressed mathematically:
where h is Planck's constant.
In addition to the fact that the position of the particle and the numerical value of the momentum cannot be determined at the same time, the relationship between the two quantities includes the fact that the more certain one quantity is, the more uncertain the other is. That is, as Heisenberg said: "At the moment when the position of the electron is known, we can only know the degree of its momentum corresponding to the magnitude of its discontinuous changes." Thus, the more accurately the position is determined, the less accurate the determination of momentum, and vice versa. ”
The uncertainty principle has influenced many philosophical epistemologies, overturning "determinism" (i.e., one can know any event that will happen in the universe by knowing the state of the universe at a given moment according to a set of scientific laws) and "fatalistic" theories.
On the other hand, the uncertainty principle shows that people's cognition of objective things is flawed.
"If you know the present with certainty, you can foresee the future" is a premise, not a conclusion.
Heisenberg fell into the trap of figurative image cognition when he proposed the uncertainty principle, and later realized that the key was that the reference to electron orbitals itself was problematic. Using the existing experiments at that time, the electron trail seen by people was not the real orbit of the electron, but the fog trail formed by the string of water droplets, and in microscopic reality, the water droplet was much larger than the electron, so what people observed was only the uncertain position of a series of electrons, not the exact orbit of the electron. Therefore, in quantum mechanics, an electron can only be in a certain position with a certain uncertainty, and at the same time can only have a certain speed with a certain uncertainty. These uncertainties can be limited to a minimum, but not equal to zero.
The famous German physicist Heisenberg
This was Heisenberg's original thinking on the uncertainty principle. Einstein was inspired by a conversation with Heisenberg in 1926 when he asked: "Do you seriously believe that only observable quantities should enter the theory of physics?" Although we have always believed that any scientific theory must be proved through rigorous experimental verification, Einstein also said, "It is completely wrong to try to build a theory based on observables alone." In fact, quite the opposite, it is the theory that determines what we can observe. ”
Based on this, Heisenberg proposed the thought experiment of the "Heisenberg microscope experiment". In this experiment , he imagined working in the most ideal environment with the best instruments , but the limits of Planck's constant, which were defined by the uncertainty principle, could not be broken over the limits of the Planck constant for measuring action in the microscopic world.
The picture comes from the Internet, invaded and deleted
Therefore, according to the uncertainty principle, it is impossible to accurately determine the position and momentum of an elementary particle at the same time. Although this is particle behavior in the microscopic world. It cannot be demonstrated with experimental results, but it is a huge challenge to the law of cause and effect.
According to the law of cause and effect, if we can know exactly the present, then we can foresee the future. This is a definite conclusion. But according to the uncertainty principle, we cannot know exactly what is now, because we cannot know all the details of what happened in the current state, and we are always in a state of "knowing more" in our understanding of what is happening now, but we cannot reach the limit of "knowing".
Use the "uncertainty principle" to explain actual examples
In this news, the boy's mother said in an original voice: "Aren't we working so hard now for him? You said that earning some money was spent on you, what do you think about the child, how much pressure we have day by day, you are still depressed, oh you worry about me to death. ”
In this news, we hear words entirely from the position of the boy's mother, which tells us that the boy's family is not well-off, that it is not easy for the boy's parents to earn money, and that there is a limit to what they can earn. The money earned by the boy's parents is used to support the child (of course, this is the boy's mother's words).
We can deduce from this: the boy's mother believes that the cause of depression is mainly caused by material life pressures, and the boy's mother has never understood the child's psychological condition. It was then learned that the boy's mother knew very little about depression.
But we cannot conclude here that the boy's severe depression is entirely due to family factors, especially the mother. Although we have reason to think that the mother puts a lot of pressure on the child, which can lead to his depression. But we can't be sure of the real cause of depression in boys. Because we don't know what boys' school life and social life look like, and we don't know if boys have other physical health reasons (physical discomfort can also lead to depression), there are multiple complex factors in the matter of suffering from depression.
Each of us has our own position and sees things in our own position.
This news commentary is written from the boy's point of view
This news commentary is written from the mother's point of view
Thus, the similarity to the uncertainty principle here is that the more we learn about the psychology of the mother in the news, the more likely we are to put things in her shoes, and conversely, the less we know about the boy's situation, and the less likely we are to determine the real cause of his depression. Similarly, the more we look at things from the boy's point of view (like most of the boys' grievances in the comments), the more likely we are to think that the boy's mother is the cause of the boy's depression, and the more we blame the mother, then in the end, we will ignore the real cause of the boy's depression, and it is impossible to help him get rid of this depression.
What does the uncertainty principle teach us?
Sociology, one of the implications of the uncertainty principle is that the uncertainty principle separates our pursuit of things as they are. This may be a bit pessimistic, because people have always pursued moral norms rather than de facto norms.
Einstein said that only theory, that is, only knowledge of the laws of nature, allows us to infer basic phenomena from sensory impressions. However, our free will allows us to see the occurrence of phenomena from a subjective standpoint.
In his 1927 paper on the principle of uncertainty, Heisenberg began by proposing: "If anyone wants to elucidate the meaning of the phrase 'position of an object' (e.g. the position of an electron), then he must describe an experiment capable of measuring the 'position of an electron', otherwise the phrase makes no sense at all." "Today, we have not made this ideal experiment, but we must be clear that whether or not we can verify this principle in an ideal experiment, the uncertainty principle is still an inescapable property of the quantum world. Because that's what particles are.
From this point of view, the uncertainty principle itself is a matter of certainty, and we are still on the road to pursuing things of certainty.