What is Heisenberg: Definition and 308 Discussions

Werner Karl Heisenberg (; German pronunciation: [ˈvɛɐ̯nɐ ˈhaɪzn̩ˌbɛɐ̯k] (listen); 5 December 1901 – 1 February 1976) was a German theoretical physicist and one of the key pioneers of quantum mechanics. He published his work in 1925 in a breakthrough paper. In the subsequent series of papers with Max Born and Pascual Jordan, during the same year, this matrix formulation of quantum mechanics was substantially elaborated. He is known for the uncertainty principle, which he published in 1927. Heisenberg was awarded the 1932 Nobel Prize in Physics "for the creation of quantum mechanics".Heisenberg also made important contributions to the theories of the hydrodynamics of turbulent flows, the atomic nucleus, ferromagnetism, cosmic rays, and subatomic particles. He was a principal scientist in the German nuclear weapons program during World War II. He was also instrumental in planning the first West German nuclear reactor at Karlsruhe, together with a research reactor in Munich, in 1957.
Following World War II, he was appointed director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics, which soon thereafter was renamed the Max Planck Institute for Physics. He was director of the institute until it was moved to Munich in 1958. He then became director of the Max Planck Institute for Physics and Astrophysics from 1960 to 1970.
Heisenberg was also president of the German Research Council, chairman of the Commission for Atomic Physics, chairman of the Nuclear Physics Working Group, and president of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.

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  1. B

    Help with the Heisenberg uncertainty principle

    Today I was assigned a question (that is due tomorrow) and I currenlty have very little idea how to solve it... Any help to get me started here would be greatly appreciated. 1. Use the uncertainty principle to estimate the uncertainty in energy of a proton confined to a nucleus 1.0 x 10^-14m in...
  2. B

    Help with the Heisenberg uncertainty principle

    Today I was assigned a question (that is due tomorrow) and I currenlty have very little idea how to solve it... Any help to get me started here would be greatly appreciated. 1. Use the uncertainty principle to estimate the uncertainty in energy of a proton confined to a nucleus 1.0 x 10^-14m in...
  3. M

    Heisenberg and wave-particle duality related questions

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  4. A

    Heisenberg Uncertainty Principal with regards to electron orbits

    Hello all, I have gathered that the orbit of an electron cannot be calculated due to the uncertainty principal which states that position becomes uncertain when momentum is measured and vice versa. From this I understand that an orbit is not possible for an electron, hence the term...
  5. R

    Understanding the Differences Between Ising and Heisenberg Models

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  6. G

    Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle Question

    A measurement establishes the position of a proton with an accuracy of ±1.00 x 10 ^ -11 m. Find the uncertainty in the proton's position 1.00s later. DE Dt ≥ h / 4 ∏ Dx Dp ≥ h / 4 ∏ using DE Dt ≥ h / 4 ∏ DE = 5.276*10^-35 J where t = 1.00s I am stuck as...
  7. pellman

    Heisenberg equation of motion for fermions?

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  8. pellman

    Time translation in the heisenberg picture?

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  9. C

    Heisenberg Undertainty Principle

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  10. L

    Did I Make a Mistake? A Sign Error in an Exercise Answer

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  11. T

    Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle to estimate the position uncertainty

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  12. C

    Heisenberg and energy of an electron in a potential well

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  13. P

    The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle and bacteria

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  14. T

    Connection between Dyson's equation and Heisenberg equation of motion

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  15. S

    Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle question

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  16. W

    Creating a Black Hole: Exploring the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle

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  17. M

    Numerical solution of heisenberg model

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  18. J

    Heisenberg incertitude principe ? contradicting ?

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  19. G

    Derivation of the Hamiltonian of the Heisenberg model

    Homework Statement Show that the Hamiltonian of the Heisenberg model can be written as: H=\sum^{N}_{k=1}[H_{z}(k)+H_{f}(k)] where H_{z}(k)\equivS^{z}(k)S^{z}(k+1) H_{f}(k)\equiv(1/2)[S^{+}(k)S^{-}(k+1)+S^{-}(k)S^{+}(k+1)] Homework Equations As above The Attempt at a Solution I...
  20. M

    Usefulness of Heisenberg picture?

    I'm a little confused as to why anyone would want to use the Heisenberg picture of time evolution instead of the Schrodinger picture, beyond showing that the equations of motion are similar to those of classical mechanics. For example, consider a free particle. Using the Heisenberg equations of...
  21. L

    Heisenberg Equations of Motion, Solving for S(t) in Spin Precession problem

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  22. G

    Understanding Heisenberg, Hamiltonians and Spin Chains

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  23. L

    Heisenberg uncertainty principle

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  24. P

    What Are Heisenberg Spin Chains?

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  25. L

    On Heisenberg Principle - ParticleWave Hybrid

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  26. N

    Unclear about the Heisenberg uncertainty principle

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  27. T

    Basic Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle

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  28. M

    Question about the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle

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  29. heusdens

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  30. A

    I this formula is true according to Heisenberg uncertainty principle

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  31. O

    Heisenberg uncertainty principle

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  32. L

    Heisenberg UP and space homogeneity - an intuitive reasoning

    Let's consider the position x and momentum p of a free particle. \Delta\ x\Delta\ p\geq \hbar/2 so, if \Delta \ x is little enough, \Delta \ p is big enough. The fact \Delta \ p is big implies that we cannot say the momentum conservation law is valid anylonger. But: space is...
  33. V

    Exploring Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle

    This quote is from a physicist in another forum: I can't believe that is true. I have seen the Heisenberg principle applied, but not like this. Can somebody shed some light :)
  34. RogerPink

    Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle and Gaussian Distributions

    I was reading about the derivation of the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle and how Heisenberg used Gaussian Distributions to represent the uncertainty of position and momentum in his calculation. Why is it that Gaussian Distributions were used? There are many different types of distributions...
  35. F

    The Heisenberg Uncertainty Princeple

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  36. O

    Understanding Fourier Series and Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle

    Not sure if this should go into a math section, but I am trying to understand it in order to understand the Hesenberg uncertainy principle. I can't find a simple introduction to Fourier series to answer this question. In my modern physics book, it does a quick introduction to Fourier series...
  37. S

    Heisenberg and quantum mechanics

    Heisenberg showed that, even in theory with a hypothetical infinitely precise instrument, no measurement could be made to arbitrary accuracy of both the position and the momentum of a physical object. What I want to know is how? How did he show it coz that conters my belief of...
  38. D

    Reduction in Heisenberg uncertainty

    I am writing this on the curiosity of the results of a theoretical experiment. Imagine a photon moving thorugh space. It is moving freely through three dimentions and time. Using the Lorentz contraction we can only know approximately where it will be in 3 dimentions for a given time and speed...
  39. A

    A contradiction of Heisenberg uncertainty principle?

    A contradiction of Heisenberg uncertainty principle?? Suppose an atom is cooled to 0 K (Practically impossible). However theoretically, all its motion will cease ; and therefore it will be possible to determine the exact position of the atom and exact velocity (which is zero).Doesn't this...
  40. K

    Heisenberg uncertainty principle (simple stuff)

    I'm having a little trouble with my textbook's explanation. This is regarding the energy - time variation of the uncertainty principle; very basic stuff, so I hope helping me out won't take too much. Let me quote exactly: "... the energy conservation can appear to be violated by an amount...
  41. C

    Statistical form of Heisenberg Uncertainty

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  42. L

    Regarding human influence and Heisenberg

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  43. W

    What do the terms in Heisenberg's matrices represent?

    I was just thinking about what does every one of the terms in Heisenberg's matrices stands for so I decied to post a new thread in physicsforums since I am sure I will obtain an answer before long. Thanks an try to explain it in plain languaje (if possible) because I am not an expert
  44. S

    What Is Heisenberg Hamiltonian?

    Hi. Can anyone tell me what exactly the "Heisenberg Hamiltonian" is? I found it in an article related to: the renormalization group. Thanks in advance. Somy:smile:
  45. B

    Finding expectation value using Heisenberg picture

    We have a particle in a harmonic oscillator potential. The eigenstates are denoted {|0>,|1>,...,|n>,...}. Initially the particle is in the state |s> = exp(-ipa)|0>, where p is the momentum operator. I need to find <x> as a function of time using the Heisenberg picture. The problem is, how do...
  46. A

    Recoil energy and Heisenberg Uncertainty principal

    I need to prove that the act of measuring exactly the position of an electron would change its orbit. change in position x change in momentum = h the limit would suggest that knowing the location exactly would set the change in momentum p= h What is the formula that relates energy...
  47. Whitestar

    The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle

    The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle tells us that while it is possible to measure the position and velocity with reasonable accuracy, we cannot measure both an atom's position and velocity at the same time. The reason for this is simple. For instance, to find the position of an atom, we must...
  48. M

    Heisenberg imcertainty principle (get it)

    I don't understand why it is so hard to find the exact position and velocity of orbiting electron. And also, why would we want to know it, if it is always moving? I am not trying to disprove it or anything, so don't make fun of me, i am an uneducated peon
  49. J

    Learn QM in Heisenberg Formalism: Texts/Sources

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  50. T

    Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle

    The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle states that both the exact (as near as we can get to thusfar) position AND momentum of a particle cannot be obtained because in learning its exact position we alter its momentum and vice versa. Does this mean we only have rough measurements of particles...
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