- #1
loom91
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Hi,
All my chemistry textbooks (thankfully not the physics ones) and my teachers (unfortunately including the physics ones) seem bent on 'explaining' the Heisenberg Position-Momentum Uncertainty Principle using the famous thought experiment of photons striking an electron, and not one of them actually give a complete statement of HUP (they say product of uncertainties is half-h-bar without explaining that uncertainty in this context means standard deviation of observable).
I'm trying to prepare a report on why this example is not a valid derivation of HUP. I describe the reasoning below:-
In order to observe an electron, we need to 'hit it' with light. The more precisely we want to know the position, the shorter we have to make the wavelength, but the more energetic the photon becomes, disturbing the original trajectory of the electron thus increasing the uncertainty in momentum. The best books even accompany this with an illustration. This explanation is present in even books written by national government sanctioned whole workshops of authors.
The two counter-arguments I can currently find are:-
1)It is possible to measure an observable without physically disturbing the state it courtesy Bell's Theorem.
2)The explanation does not actually explain anything, since it makes no attempt to precisely define measurements or uncertainties.
More arguments/corrections/more concrete reformulations will be appreciated. I'm seeking to prepare a report which will convince a hardened old teacher and a national educational board of their errors, and it is probably a folly to assume any significant amount of prior theoretical knowledge on their part (for example I doubt how many know about entanglement). Also, this is mainly for personnel from chemistry as those from physics are at least slightly more educated in this respect.
Thanks.
Molu
All my chemistry textbooks (thankfully not the physics ones) and my teachers (unfortunately including the physics ones) seem bent on 'explaining' the Heisenberg Position-Momentum Uncertainty Principle using the famous thought experiment of photons striking an electron, and not one of them actually give a complete statement of HUP (they say product of uncertainties is half-h-bar without explaining that uncertainty in this context means standard deviation of observable).
I'm trying to prepare a report on why this example is not a valid derivation of HUP. I describe the reasoning below:-
In order to observe an electron, we need to 'hit it' with light. The more precisely we want to know the position, the shorter we have to make the wavelength, but the more energetic the photon becomes, disturbing the original trajectory of the electron thus increasing the uncertainty in momentum. The best books even accompany this with an illustration. This explanation is present in even books written by national government sanctioned whole workshops of authors.
The two counter-arguments I can currently find are:-
1)It is possible to measure an observable without physically disturbing the state it courtesy Bell's Theorem.
2)The explanation does not actually explain anything, since it makes no attempt to precisely define measurements or uncertainties.
More arguments/corrections/more concrete reformulations will be appreciated. I'm seeking to prepare a report which will convince a hardened old teacher and a national educational board of their errors, and it is probably a folly to assume any significant amount of prior theoretical knowledge on their part (for example I doubt how many know about entanglement). Also, this is mainly for personnel from chemistry as those from physics are at least slightly more educated in this respect.
Thanks.
Molu