Indeterminacy Principle / Uncertainty Principle

Historical Context Note

Litencyc Editors (Independent Scholar - Europe)

The Literary Encyclopedia. WORLD HISTORY AND IDEAS: A CROSS-CULTURAL VOLUME.

Domains

Gravity and Relativity

Dates

Date of occurrence 1927-02

Places

Denmark (Location)

Resources

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The “indeterminacy principle” is a companion theory to the “complementarity principle” (q.v.) Proposed by Werner Heisenberg in 1927, as a consequence of the research he was carrying out with Niels Bohr on sub-atomic particles, it recognised that when experimenters measured the position of an electron they would alter its momentum. When they sought to measure the electron's momentum, they would conversely and similarly alter its position. The implication is that all knowledge we have is not only theory-dependent (see “complementarity principle”;), it is also influenced by the ways a researcher interacts with the phenomenon. We may have knowledge that is true in the given circumstances, but we cannot be sure that this knowledge will be true in other circumstances. Knowledge is…

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189 words

Citation: Editors, Litencyc. "Indeterminacy Principle / Uncertainty Principle". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 28 October 2000 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=549, accessed 19 April 2024.]

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