Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle
In 1927 Werner Heisenberg, working at Niels Bohr's institute in Copenhagen, published his uncertainty principle: the position and momentum of a subatomic particle cannot both be precisely known simultaneously - the more precisely one is measured, the less precisely the other can be. This was not a limitation of instruments but a fundamental feature of quantum reality. Combined with Schrodinger's wave equation (1926) and Born's probability interpretation, it completed the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics, overthrowing the deterministic Newtonian worldview. Einstein famously objected - 'God does not play dice' - but quantum mechanics proved experimentally unassailable and underpins all modern electronics, chemistry, and nuclear physics.
- Year: 1927 CE
- Category: Scientific
