Heisenberg, Werner (1901-1976)

German theoretical physicist. Famous for the uncertainty principle in quantum mechanics, widely received as asserting a radically irreducible conception of nature (1927). In brief, a particle’s position and momentum together define its path, or trajectory, but the uncertianity principle implies that a precisely defined value for position and momentum cannot both be possessed at by a quantum mechanical system. The more determinate one of the values is, the less the other value in the pair will be.

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Physics

Contributed by: Richard P Whaite