What is the shortest distance between two points? In free, flat space it would have to be a perfectly straight line. Any other line is going to be greater or equal to that perfectly straight line. Does Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle work the same way?
Suppose we have a perfect line between points A and B. The perfectly straight line between them is xo, and that distance is equal to Planck's constant (h-bar) divided by momentum (p). If we can draw a straight line (x) between A and B, with no margin of error, then that line will be equal to h-bar/p and xo. If there is a margin of error, then x will be greater than or equal to h-bar/p--with an emphasis on "greater than."
Assuming error margins exist, it seems reasonable to assume the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle is bullet proof. Since our line x is greater than or equal to xo, we can use this fact to show, in terms of momentum (where m=mass, v=velocity), that any arbitrary velocity is less than or equal to the speed of light (c).
From equation 2, we can derive a new uncertainty principle between mass (m) and position (x). Check out equations 6 and 7 below.
It has been argued that mass-less particles, i.e., photons are unaffected by the Uncertainty Principle. At equation 8 we substitute a photon's mass equivalent (fh/c^2). You can see that it is possible to know the photon's position and frequency (f) with great precision (h-bar/c), but there is still some uncertainty, some margin for error.
At equation 9 it appears the Uncertainty Principle is debunked--at least in part. We multiply both sides of equation 8 by velocity (v) and we get equation 9. If velocity is zero, it is possible to know the exact position and momentum of a particle. If velocity is light speed (c), then h-bar is the best we can do (with the exception of a mass-less particle). The median velocity is 1/2c. With that we can derive the original Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle.
Maybe a dumb question, but isn't space/time curved?
ReplyDeleteOnly when mass or energy is present; otherwise it's flat. Curved spacetime is also just a fancy way to describe linear acceleration. When jusmp from an airplane you fall straight but if you plot the total distance over the total time of the fall, you get a curved graph.
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