The “uncertainty principle” is a mis-translation (2014)

Re:The “uncertainty principle” is a mis-translation (2014) by Florin_Andrei on Friday May 20, 2016 @01:34PM (#11739790)

"Uncertainty" suggests that the position might, in some way, be defined with 100% precision, but it's us, the observers, who are uncertain what the actual value is.

"Unschärferelation" suggests the value coming out of the system (position, impulse, etc) is in a fundamental way not pinned on a single value fixed with 100% precision, but instead it's spread out over a distribution function.

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Re:The “uncertainty principle” is a mis-translation (2014) by EnFinlay on Friday May 20, 2016 @01:41PM (#11739855)

Oh, I got it. It's the difference between "I am uncertain" and "It is uncertain". That makes sense.

First discussion that happens in an undergrad quantum mechanics class.

Teacher: "It is uncertain" Student: "Can't we measure it better?" Teacher: "No, it is unknowable, no matter what" Student: "Wtf?"

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Re:The “uncertainty principle” is a mis-translation (2014) by emsy on Friday May 20, 2016 @02:37PM (#11740350)

Unscharf (the adjective to Unschärfe) can be translated to "out of focus" or "blur", which kind of describes the phenomenon figuratively.

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