The So-called "Uncertainty" Principle

[syrakusos]

On the Galt's Gulch Online forum, Dale Halling pointed to this video as a refutation of the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vc-Uvp3vwg

(Like Ed Hudgins, I am having trouble inserting a video.)

 

[william.scherk]

Great video, great Youtube channel. Thanks for the link.

Is Dale Halling a dolt? The video does not refute the Uncertainty Principle. It explains it in under a minute, by useful analogy to measuring waves in the sea. I wonder if Dale would introduce the minute-videos on the neutrino by saying "they refutes neutrinos."  The places you hang out at, MEM.

The channel seems to have enough one-minute physics videos to binge-watch for an hour and maybe two; for long-form video, the creator takes just over an hour to give some tips for other science popularizers. As for the reason you mayn't post a video satisfactorily, there is a curse on you or this subforum.  (mine worked just now because I used the short-form, eg https:// youtu.be /_Cv5ldhxpLA -- having the same problem with full URLs as you; if you need more help, use OL messenger, or Post 32 )

 

 

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

William,

I just looked at the Source view for your embed to see why it embedded and it seems like when you used the short form, the software automatically generated an iframe. So that makes it easy when no video at all will embed from YouTube. Simply copy the ifram embed code, toggle to Source view when posting and paste it where you wish (don't forget the paragraph tags).

It usually generates this iframe automatically with the normal browser url, but I don't know why it won't sometimes.

btw - That is one hell of a great channel. I subscribed. That is true storytelling for science rather than the jargon-laden telephone book style we often see. I only saw the video below so far, but notice how he sets up his list. The normal way is to say, THIS IS A LIST, then give the items on the list. This guy tells a story of discovery and wonder at the weirdness of it all. He first sets it up comparing and contrasting the basics of how to discover these things, giving opinions like "boring" or why something is better, then settles on the process he favors and uses the list as examples of that process while implying he is awestruck at the coolness of each item. His storytelling for me is the really cool part.

 

Michael

[RobinReborn]

The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle is one of those things that non-scientists use (without understanding) to try and limit the certainty of whomever they're debating with.  It's a principle whose applications are pretty limited in scope.

[BaalChatzaf]

The "uncertainty principle"  holds in classical  (non-quantum) optics  and  is quite true.   

Please see  http://fp.optics.arizona.edu/Masud/Uncertainty.pdf

In digital sampling the sampling rate limits the frequency of the waveform that is being sampled.

 

"This forms the basis for the famous Nyquist-Shannon sampling theorem. You can reconstruct the original signal from regularly spaced samples only if it doesn't contain frequency components higher than half your sampling rate. Otherwise you get ambiguities in the form of high frequency parts of the signal masquerading as low frequency parts. This effect is known as aliasing. As a result, the Fourier transform of a sampled function is periodic with the "repeats" corresponding to the aliasing"

http://blog.sigfpe.com/2013/01/aliasing-and-heisenberg-uncertainty.html

This is strictly in the domain of finite sampling of wave forms.  The "aliasing"  of the simple corresponds to the indeterminacy found in the quantum phenomena. 

.