[extropy-chat] still no biscuit!

[Damien Broderick]

[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