[extropy-chat] still no biscuit!
Damien Broderick
thespike at satx.rr.com
Thu Jan 20 02:40:07 UTC 2005
[Jeff:]
> > >Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle does not conflict with conservation
> > >of momentum. It is a limit on measurement capabilities, not an
> > >indicator that momentum goes "all over the ship" when position is
> > >measured.
[me:]
> > This is simply wrong (as I understand it). It seems to imply that with
> > finer or smarter measuring instruments, we could home in on both properties
> > simultaneously; this seems to be incorrect.
[Jeff:]
>Your claim about what it implies is incorrect. The limit on
>measurement has nothing to do with what measurement instrument used --
>'finer or smarter' instruments do nothing to alleviate the problem.
>Google Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle.
Good grief. DEIXIS ALERT! When I wrote `It seems to imply', I didn't mean
the Indeterminacy Principle, I was pointing back to`Your claim'.
To use the words `It is a limit on measurement capabilities' seems to me to
imply that the *capacity* to measure something *that now exists* is
limited. But the point of the Indeterminacy Principle is that *there's
nothing determinate there to measure* if you've chosen instead to measure
some variable noncommuting with, or conjugate to, it. (As Robin pointed out
using much classier language.)
Damien Broderick
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