Hans Halvorson Physics, Logic, Philosophy

Uncertainty relations

  1. Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg had an intense debate about the derivation of the uncertainty relations (winter 1926).

  2. Bohr prefers the phrase “indeterminacy (ubestemthed) relations” instead of “uncertainty relations”. This apparently minor linguistic point corresponds to a large issue in Bohr’s overall understanding of what the equations and predictions of QM mean. In fact, the Danish word “bestemt”, derived from “at bestemme”, picks up on Bohr’s intentional blurring of the line between what’s inside and outside the physicist’s head.

References

(Tanona 2004)

Tanona, Scott. 2004. “Uncertainty in Bohr’s Response to the Heisenberg Microscope.” Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 35 (3): 483–507. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsb.2004.04.007.