Heisenberg was a German, and remained so his whole life; part of which included the second world war. Being a scientist he could have left the country and joined the allies, like Albert Einstein did. He was awarded the Nobel prize in 1932 for "the creation of Quantum Mechanics..." which when looked at in a historical context has been far less useful than auto mechanics as developed by Henry Ford.
Heisenberg developed his uncertainty principle during his time of employment working for the Nazis. Generally believed not to be a strong believer in the Nazi agenda, he did none the less work at developing nuclear technology for them. However, no one is quite certain if he was really putting his back into the work. Sometimes he thought a bomb was possible, but would require tons of material. Other times he thought it would be impossible, and even thought that reports of the Hiroshima bomb were pure propaganda. Claims also come up that he knew it could be done, but tried to slow the work to prevent its completion. But it is also possible that those were just stories concocted to cover his inept abilities in comparison to the Manhattan project.
As a result of Heisenberg's wishy-washyness (all reports indicate he never did in fact enter pollitics) he developed his uncertainty principle "which says you can't really know where anything is.*" Source
*A full discussion of Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle may be found in the Appendix. Then again, it may not.
Friday, September 28, 2007
The second looser, Heisenberg's uncertainty principle.
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3 comments:
There's no discussion to be had here, as Godwin's Law was invoked from the outset (Nazis mentioned before commentary could even begin...).
I have been wondering if mentioning Nazis in an opening statement actually nullifies Godwin's Law...
In this case I do not believe Godwin's law would be nullified. According to Wikipedia Godwin's law applies to discussions, not posts. Although I am sure there are some caveats for posts involving the subject of Nazis or Hitler. Second, Godwin's Law involves the comparison not the use of such entities in factual context. Again however there are some caveats. For example "Soup Nazis" may exist, and be discussed in a factual nature. But their very title is a comparison to the Third Reich.
Of course, although he died in 1976, his spirit endured. He now mostly hangs around local pool halls, messing with people's minds under the pseudonym "Eddy."
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