Siyensikula : The Principle of Uncertainty (Quantum Mechanics)

Terence Jhosua F. Del Mundo

ILIS - JHS

Script :

So as I was scrolling through the internet in hopes of finding a concept, I was left completely uncertain. I
already had this complete Idea of what I'm supposed to do, but then it hit me with the fact that there
are completely hundreds of concepts, which I certainly don't have that amount of time to even study all
of them with such limited time to create an original concept for a video.

And that my friend is an example of a mental breakdown, I am bluffing please don't take that seriously.

As I was saying this logical consequence in life and that “complete uncertainty” earlier is where I
introduce the uncertainty principle by Werner Heisenberg.

According to quantum mechanics, the uncertainty principle states that the more we know the position
of a particle, the less we'll know more of its momentum or velocity and vice versa.

But what does that mean? It means that Position and Momentum are conjugate variables (Which either
of them, but both cannot be known at the same time.)

For example. Let's say that we are playing on your casual billiard and you wanted to know the exact
location of the cue ball, but then in order to know its position you will need to exactly hit the cue ball
with a billiard ball, but then after knowing its position you won't be able to acquire its exact momentum
since it already got hit by another ball.

That's exactly what the principle is saying. As we've gained information about its position we lose
information about its momentum, that’s the consequence

Let us have another example applied In a Quantum System. In a microscope we want to know the
position of an electron, Mr. photon (a particle that transmits light) will help us acquire the position of an
electron, but you see Mr. Photon also acts as a wavelength.
“What’s a wavelength?”

A wavelength is simplified as the particle’s behavior itself, also known as wave-particle duality which a
particle such as a photon can also behave as a wave.

But here’s the weird part! Wavelengths of a photon or light behave so differently!

If we simplify it, shorter wavelength’s have higher energy, while longer wavelengths have lower energy.

“So what are you trying to say?”

To summarize, photon’s containing high energy will just bump unto the electron only knowing its
position, but if it were to have low energy, we’ll get an idea of its momentum, but it’ll be difficult to
know exactly its position.

That’s the idea of this concept! there is probability that we'll be able to discover one thing but not
entirely the other, with uncertainty.

To sum up the whole video, the uncertainty principle just means that both cannot be simultaneously
known at the same time, and I know what you're thinking :

" Why the heck do I even have to know this. "

Well, this concept is a fundamental aspect of matter, this is also applied logically speaking to the laws of
nature. If you are certain that Science is easy, you shouldn’t be uncertain and intimidated due to its
complexity.
References
 Simple Explanation of Orbitals (2015)

https://chemistry.stackexchange.com/questions/40646/simple-explanation-of-orbitals

 The uncertainty principle (2005)

https://www.britannica.com/science/uncertainty-principle

 The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle Explained Intuitively (2018)

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qwt6wUUD2QI&t=465s

 The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle Part 1: Position/Momentum etc.(2017)

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7jY5Q6u65uo&t=39s

 IDTIMWYTIM: Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle (2012)

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=noZWLPpj3to

 What is the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle? - Chad Orzel (2014)

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TQKELOE9eY4