• Question: Does the uncertainty principle affect your job a lot?

    Asked by anon-106860 to Scott, Jim, Adrian on 14 Mar 2016.
    • Photo: Adrian Buzatu

      Adrian Buzatu answered on 14 Mar 2016:

      The uncertainty principle is at the foundation of quantum mechanics. Quantum mechanics is at the foundation of all electronics, computers, particle physics. So yes, it affects us in our everyday life, and also at work in particle physics.

    • Photo: Scott Lawrie

      Scott Lawrie answered on 14 Mar 2016:

      Great question. In general, weird quantum effects like that don’t affect big objects like you and me. However they are regularly seen in our experiments and in very small bits of kit (like the transistors in computer chips). Quantum tunneling is one of the most widely used applications of the uncertainty principle. This is when a particle bouncing around inside a box can actually have a finite chance to be OUTSIDE the box because you are not allowed to perfect know its location. This principle is fundamental to the operation of LEDS, Flash memory, the Sun and even photosynthesis!

    • Photo: Jim Barrett

      Jim Barrett answered on 14 Mar 2016:

      The uncertainty principle doesn’t really come into play at all in my research, although I still hear a lot about it, since the uncertainty principle is a key concept in designing gravitational wave detectors (and my close colleagues work a lot on that)

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