In the 1920`s, a man named Werner Heisenberg came up with the Uncertainty Principle while working on Quantum Physics. It states that if you know the position of a very small object such as an electron, it is impossible to figure out its velocity or vice versa; if you know the speed it was moving at, you cannot know its position. Either you know one variable or the other but not both at the same time. That is where the uncertainty comes from and this is one of the core principles of Quantum Theory.
Since Quantum Physics works on the level of the very small, the speed of an object or the position of an object that is incredibly small needs to be measured by special “observation”. This isn’t the usual observation of just looking at an object with your eyes and a small ruler as objects this small are too small to see with conventional equipment. This “observation” must be done with the use of another object in order to be accurate. This usually involves a laser being pointed at the object, as lasers are incredibly accurate. Unfortunately, when you get to extremely small objects like molecules, the impact of the laser actually moves the molecule quite significantly upon impact. It’s almost like pointing a firehouse at a beach ball. You know where the object was at the time of impact, but since the object has been moved by the laser, you cannot find out the direction at which the object was originally moving as it has been changed with the laser. Essentially, if you "observe" an object this way, you change its direction or move it, thus making one of the two factors uncertain. When this happens, scientists can only guess at the unknown factor second factor and therein lies the uncertainty.
Scientists can lower the percentage of uncertainty by giving probabilities to each possible outcome. For example, if a particle is moving in an easterly direction, it has a high percentage chance that it will continue on in that direction. This probability is not one hundred percent because there is a small probability that the particle might come into contact with another object and change direction or it might be affected by another force.
This uncertainty and probabilities with objects on the quantum level led scientists to believe that objects unobserved were not always where they should be at any given time; they only had a probability of being there until observed. That is, you might think that a molecule might be in a certain place, but until you made the measurement or “observation”, you could not be one hundred percent sure that was true. Therefore, there are only possibilities when it comes to an object being where it should be. That means a molecule could be where you believe it to be, but there was also a possibility that it was somewhere else. If it could be somewhere else, then it didn’t matter where in the universe it could be as one place was as good as another according to probability. The only difference was that the probability of it being somewhere else dropped the farther away you went.
With this idea in mind, scientists took this odd quirk and went even further.
If molecules could be anywhere in the universe, why not larger objects like your hairbrush or your table? If you weren’t directly observing something (and at this level “observing” actually means seeing an object, not pointing a laser at it), was it still there when you turned your back on it? Were kids right to be surprised when you play peek-a-boo? Is object permanence actually something real or is it just how we view the universe? We assume an object will still be where we left it unless it’s the car keys or a matching sock which we all know can be anywhere in the universe except where you expect them to be.
With the Uncertainty Principle taken to its ultimate conclusion, does anything truly exist if it is not observed? Do the stars actually exist if no one looked at them? Does my car go from my driveway to vacation on Mars when I am not looking at it?
To any rational person, these would seem strange questions to ask, as we have all learned at a very young age about object permanence. However, because of the Uncertainty Principle, people now ask these crazy questions and believe that this uncertainty of being in the same place as the last time you saw it is now possible.
To me, the Uncertainty Principle is a theory that has gotten out of hand and is not correct.
Scientists have taken the fact that our current technology cannot measure a particle’s speed and direction at the same time and overblown the theory into one that questions the very existence of the universe.
Since we cannot measure two factors at once with today’s technology, it does not mean we will never be able to do this in the future. Technology changes and improves constantly so one day there will be a way to measure both at the same time. This means that there will be no uncertainty involved. The Uncertainty Principle will prove to be invalid and one of the main pillars of Quantum Physics will be shown to be incorrect.
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