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What is the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle? - Chad Orzel

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The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle states that you can never simultaneously know the exact position and the exact speed of an object. Why not? Because everything in the universe behaves like both a particle and a wave at the same time. Chad Orzel navigates this complex concept of quantum physics.

There is a relationship similar to the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle for position and momentum between the uncertainty in the energy of a particle and the uncertainty in the time at which that energy is measured—a smaller energy uncertainty means a bigger time uncertainty, and vice versa. In quantum physics, the energy of a particle is related to the frequency at which the wave associated with that particle oscillates (that is, the number of times per second that the wave goes from peak to valley and back). Given that, can you explain the origin of the energy-time uncertainty relationship?

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