Next: 1.6 Tunneling
Up: 1. Introduction
Previous: 1.4 Wave particle duality
A wave of sharp frequency has to last infinitely long, and is thus
completely delocalised. What does this imply for matter waves? One of the
implications is the uncertainty relation between position and momentum
This implies that the combined accuracy of a simultaneous measurement of
position and momentum has a minimum. This is not important in problems on
standard scales, for the following practical reason. Suppose we measure
the velocity of a particle of 1g to be
1
10-6m. In that case we
can measure its position no more accurate that
5 . 10-26m, a
completely outrageous accuracy (remember, this is 10-16 times the
atomic scale!)