If we want to describe what happens in an atomic event, we must realize that the word 'happens' can apply only to the observation, not to the state of affairs between two observations.
Click any product to generate a realistic preview. Up to 3 at a time.
* Initial load can take up to 90 seconds — revising the preview in another color is nearly instant.
"Not only is the Universe stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we *can* imagine."
"The idea of an objective real world whose smallest parts exist objectively in the same sense as stones or trees exist, independently of whether or not we observe them... is impossible."
"The more precise the measurement of position, the more imprecise the measurement of momentum, and vice versa."
"The decision for a definite result is taken only when the measurement is made."
"You spoke in a manner that could only give me the firm impression that under your leadership everything was being done in Germany to develop atomic weapons."
Found in 1 providers: grok
1 source checked
Reality at the atomic scale cannot be described as a continuous story of things happening between measurements. The only moment we can meaningfully say something 'occurred' is when we actually observe or measure it. What a particle is doing in the gap between observations isn't a hidden but real sequence of events we could in principle watch; it's simply outside the language of ordinary happening.
Heisenberg built quantum mechanics around what is actually measurable, rejecting unobservable classical trajectories. His 1927 uncertainty principle showed position and momentum cannot both be sharply defined, and his matrix mechanics encoded only observable transitions. This quote distills his Copenhagen stance, developed with Bohr: physics describes observations, not a hidden film between them. It mirrors his lifelong conviction that meaningful reality is what experiments reveal.
Writing in the mid-twentieth century, Heisenberg worked as classical determinism collapsed under quantum experiments, Einstein's relativity, and Godel's limits on certainty. Two world wars, the atomic bomb, and philosophical movements like logical positivism were forcing thinkers to question what could be known. Against Einstein's insistence that God does not play dice, Heisenberg and Bohr's Copenhagen interpretation reshaped physics and culture, embedding observer-dependence into how modernity understood truth.
AI-generated insights based on extensive research and information for context. Factual errors? Email [email protected].
Your cart is empty
