Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle

German physicist Werner Heisenberg created the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle in 1927. The Uncertainty Principle states that we cannot know the position and speed of a particle with perfect accuracy. The more we know about the particle’s speed, the less we know about its position and vice versa.

To get a general understanding of the Uncertainty Principle, imagine a ripple in a pond. To measure the speed of the ripple, we would measure how many waves and peaks have passed by in a certain amount of time, but we would not have much to say about the position since the location would be spread out through these waves and peaks. Conversely, to know the exact position/location of a wave, we would need to focus and monitor just that wave, causing us to lose information about its speed. This simply helps us understand that we cannot know both the speed and position of something with perfect accuracy.

~Ashley Jeong