What is the Uncertainty Principle?

[TheBlinkyImp]

So, this video is wrong...

Consider a photon. We know what its frequency is. EXACTLY. But we can also see where it is! OMG but how???

Because this guy's a moron, that's how.

The uncertainty principle has nothing to do with knowledge of momentum and position. It has to do with the inherent randomness of those things. A given particle has a probability spread over momentum and position. The more variation there is in its possible location, the less variation in its momentum. That's it.

[john96797]

I change vid after just 10 sec, and btw with the comment total of 15 sec

[D3m190d]

Q: Why are quantum physicists so poor at sex?

A: Because when they find the position, they can't find the momentum, and when they have the momentum, they can't find the position.

[HamzaNYC]

@D3m190d LOL

[ASwiftHippie]

Um... why can't you know both at the same time?

[Hinduspy]

I like to think of it like this: If you want to know exactly where the electron is, you need to use a microscope to see it. The microscope will emit photons, which will cause the electron to gain energy and start jumping around all over the place. So the image you get of the electron is actually where it WAS in the past, not where it is now. If you want to know the speed of the electron, you can measure that too, but you can't know where it is while it is jumping around.

[chocoboblue99]

I think I got! lol

Just thinking about an ocean wave. We can't really know where a wave is because it's spread out, but we can know how much it is going.

[Tridecalogism]

This taught me more about the uncertainty principle than sixty symbols did. Broke it down so a simpleton could understand it...

[BoaVenom18]

whenever I go to bed one second I'm awake the next second BOOM! I'm waking up

that's kinda like these videos he starts to explain it, I think about pizza for 1 second, BOOM he says "and that's the uncertainty principal in a nuthsell"

[naradia95]

@BoaVenom18 LOL exactly. I don't know why, but I always miss something or the other that's important and I have to watch that part again. This usually happens like 4-5 times per episode. :P

[coconutcreampie123]

please make a video with vi hart

[MyWorldOfBlocks]

but what if i have two people measure one wave, and one measure the speed and the other measures the location...Then they share their results...world go boom?

[ObjectiveImpact]

@MyWorldOfBlocks nope. If object is vibrating, you must "freez" it before you can determine where exactlly is it located. If object if vibrating you cant determine its location because it doesnt have location because its vibrating therefore moving. So if you freez object, you can determine its location, but now you cant determine its speed, because it isnt vibrating anymore, its frozen.

[MyWorldOfBlocks]

@ObjectiveImpact Oh now I get it....so we are all safe.

[Nasbayern]

didn't understand! :(

[pandaman434]

nyan sheep!

[goodmmann123]

Sormak

[JakornSpocknocker]

Am I the only one who thinks the bass line is one of the best parts of these videos?

[anaikahas]

@JakornSpocknocker I hadn't really noticed till now, but yeah it's pretty cool :)

[williamjpiano]

This is such an over-simplification, its not that you cannot measure both quantities at the same time, its that the more accurate one is measures, the less accurate the other value measured. And the product of the uncertainties of both values is greater than or equal to reduced plancks constant.

[obiwattkenobi]

And thus you have the Heisenberg compensator in the Star Trek beam transporters because by some kind of Vulcan magic they were able to figure out both where a particle is and is going. I love science fiction almost as much as I love real science :D

[brokenwingzzzz]

why cant we measure the frequency of a localized wave?

isnt the frequency of a wave determined by the source of the wave?

[ScienceofWinning]

@brokenwingzzzz It's more complicated than that. This picture of a pulse was misleading, a pulse is just one crest and trough. When you pinpoint the exact position of one pulse, you exclude all else essentially, and then you can't determine it's speed (or, more correctly, it's momentum, as with quantum physics, mass has the same relationship as speed to position). You also have to consider that they're not just measuring pure waves. On a quantum level, particles and waves are the same thing.

[brokenwingzzzz]

@ScienceofWinning

ooh i understand...hmmm

thanks

[monicaxix]

you would be the best lecturer! just draw in class

[hawkinscraig05]

Why did the physicist live with uncertainty? - because of the duel wave reflex.

[MrEdmondP]

@hawkinscraig05 Is that a sexual pun?

[MrSwagwontdie]

i feel like sheldon should make remakes of everyone of these videos

[marcool108]

I thought this only applied to particles? Silly me.

[TakesTwoToTango]

@marcool108 Actually the uncertainty principle applies to every couple of operators, operators being the stuff physicists use to describe properties of anything. The uncertainty principle states that the product of the uncertainties of 2 operators is proportional to their commutation relation (--> [x,p] = x*p - p*x). If this equals 0, there is no limit to certainty. If it doesn't, there is a lower bound to the product of the variances of your operators.

[TakesTwoToTango]

You can only calculate the minimum uncertainty for canonically conjugate moments, but I don't think I can explain that well within 500 or even 2000 characters. Just adding it here. And for example, position and momentum are canonically conjugate.

[politicjunkee]

Layman's terms please.

[piecharthosen]

@politicjunkee if you look at one thing you don't look at another so the other thing is not known.

[FNMrRockstar]

Bitch please

[THEEVANTHETOON]

A physicist was driving down the free-way, when he got pulled over by a cop.

Cop-"Sir, do you know how fast you were going?"

Physicist-"No, but I know where I am."

[megaexplosions]

@THEEVANTHETOON the cop decides this peculiar answer is grounds for a search, and finds a dead cat in the trunk. "Did you know that there is a dead cat in your trunk?" "No, but I do now."

[Dastweeper]

@megaexplosions EXACTLY what I was gonna say. *Nerdfigher bump*

[taa347]

@megaexplosions and @Dastweeper

*Triple nerdfighter bump* neither of you forgot to be awesome :D

[TheDanielRagsdale]

@taa347 Quad Nerdfighter bump

[mhalyc]

I have degrees in the fields of Philosophy & English, yet I'm always watching videos on Physics.... clearly I picked the wrong majors, lol.

[piecharthosen]

@mhalyc same! *hi 5*

(except no english degree)

[reallyrandomdude23]

80 people still dont get it

[SpongebobHATS137]

stupid comment... iknow

[italbello6t9]

An excellent comparison 

[curlywigg]

if you made a revision guide i would totally buy it! :D with all your little pictures and what not :D xx

[snakepuppyXIII]

hey guys is this all what physcis are pretty much do u reccomend i take physics in high school?

[phantomrider115]

@snakepuppyXIII you have to anyways.

[isnickninja]

Is that because frequency and wavelength have an inverse relationship?

[jackoskellington]

quantim is the same as saying i guess in a scientific way.

[pythor2]

@jackoskellington No, quantum means "small amount" of something.

[Mike55Joe]

I thought Heisenberg was a drug dealer.

[Andythemn3]

Step 1: Download all audio from every Minute Physic video

Step 2: Listen in infinite loop during sleep

Step 3: Wake up as a genius

[ShiroHero13]

@Andythemn3 Did you really try this? XD

[SuperibyP]

@Andythemn3 Step 4: ???

Step 5: Profit

[bryangrice87]

@Andythemn3 Step 4: Profit

[ZuluAlfaCharlieHotel]

@Andythemn3

Step 4: Profit!

[Daniil101]

@Andythemn3 step 4: ?????????????? Profit

[ricktbdgc]

@Andythemn3 Or wake up and you can play the bass guitar like a champ

[Customgamer9]

@Andythemn3 so if thats how you become a genius, how did these guys do it?

[Hinduspy]

@Andythemn3 Since when does learning by osmosis work again? :P

[danegunjic]

@Andythemn3 its not possible to remember stuff when you are sleeping

[CagedWalnut]

@Andythemn3

Step 4: ???

Step 5: Profit

[benlandry5]

My teacher taught the uncertainty principle for 30mins and I had no idea what he was talking about. I watched this video once and I understand the uncertainty principle. How about that!

[Negimafan99]

SHUT UP stop making fun of me... meh name iz marco

[JFluffyful]

this is smart-people stuff...

but i understand...

are you a wizard?

[odinmagick]

Found you from Wimp.com and loving the series. How many times do you end up drawing a slide?

[LunazulBaraka]

why cc is in Portuguese??

[Thunder7messiFan]

haha, nutshell...

[Iloveallvalvegames]

After 4 or so of these videos I have a headache...no lie either.

[xXD1MZXx]

I got a question

Suppose you could travel at the speed of light and you looked at the mirror while traveling at the speed of light what would you see?

[gluechucker]

Several pages back, and I still haven't seen the obvious

"What is the Uncertainty Principle? "

-- "I'm not sure"

[Quinnstaz]

GOD MADE THE EARTH NOT SCIENCE

[narutosaenz]

@Quinnstaz according to Stephen Hawking science is our way to understand how the universe works not the way to make the universe so science is the way to try to understand God´s creation, that is something for your medieval mind to think of

[myawsomebox]

@Quinnstaz either your a troll looking for an arguement or you are the stupidest fucking person in existance.

[FishBowl911]

I found a way to tell exactly where a wave is and where it's going.

[TreyBoz]

You sound like Jesse Eisenberg...

[bioknock]

in a nutshell! - I can't Comprehend!

[psycool666]

at the end of the video I forgot what I was watching for

[svk1324]

Serious Physics is Serious

[PickEmAndFlickEm]

i was uncertain but then i took an arrow to the knee

[Eloporian]

Has anyone else noticed the extreme use of sheep in these videos?

[tookthenight]

First Walter White made me love chemistry, now you're making me love physics. What has this world come to?!

[turvarya]

@tookthenight

So, you started your own Meth Lab and now you wanna build your own Rocket?

[tookthenight]

@turvarya Exactly!!

[alifeofreason]

Quantum mechanics is a joke.

[Miemietheron]

@alifeofreason IE Your universe is a joke

[alifeofreason]

@Miemietheron Go back and read the 17th century rationalists, particularly Spinoza and Leibniz.

[Shafournee]

@alifeofreason Why is Quantum Mechanics a joke? It's attempting to justify the universe using mathematics, and theories. Is philosophy really any different? (excluding the math part =P)

[Moshikashitenai]

@alifeofreason Then that means electromangetism, atoms, particles, most of modern science, computers, particle accelerators, electron microscopes, nanotechnology, nuclear bombs, chemical reactions, magnets, static electricity, chemistry, and almost every aspect of your entire life is also a joke :)

[nonsenseislisa]

Theres spanish in my video whaat

[darkheart9668]

@nonsenseislisa I think it's Portuguese lol

[ooXChrissieXoo]

Wait so the sheep name Marco, and the man name Polo?!?!

[16thwarrior001]

Your drawings intrigue me :3

[Josh11PR]

Fuck school You Tue #1

[LeoxProductions]

How come when i turn my cup upside down the ice cube doesn't fall?

[UndergraduateDR]

So sweet

[onlinecrunch]

your wrong!... you call in a blackbird (cod blops reference)

[nyclilboi94]

i like his drawings ;D

[xXTrulytXx]

i am uncertain i understand 0.o

[shizelpops]

I love physics so much. 

[kdum8]

Great idea for a video series, popularising physics a great thing to do. You said: "the frequency of a wave is how close the wave crests are to each other". That is its wavelength not frequency. The frequency is the reciprocal of that. I know you know that, but better to be be entirely accurate. Frequency = 1/wavelength. Thanks again for the series.

[guesswork3141]

@kdum8 Your correction is also misleading.

The thing is Frequency = 1/period. Where the period is how close the crests are together in time. For example if we were time how long it takes for crests to pass a specific point we have measured period.

In summary:

Wavelength is how spread out crests are in distance, if I took a snapshot of the wave. And frequency is how

spread out waves are in time, at a specific point.

Your equation would work for waves where we knew the speed. Example light.

[kdum8]

@guesswork3141 sure I would agree with that. Generally I work only with photons which of course have a speed fixed of c, so the formula becomes 1=λν. But Frequency = 1/period is probably a clearer way to state it. I imagine that cramming everything into 1 minute isn't very easy!

[canreader]

OK someone really needs to get off crack while making videos explaining shit...

[HighPowerScope]

When he starts talking fast in the first 5 seconds, you know you're not gonna get it...

[EpicBullStormCountry]

make one about aerodynamics

[gpokriff2]

The wave doesn't wave?.... explain plz

[Jojodabunneh]

OOOOOH I GET IT. That's really simple!

[Jojodabunneh]

........... What?

[masicklazik]

i think that for a 16 year old going on 17 who doubled his math course... i understand alot of these videos supprisingly :o and i love it! quantom physics, mechanics (i dont exactly understand all this algebra but the logic of all this!).. etc

i love it.. now im motivated to finishing this math!

[deltians]

so if i know my friend is going to tokyo, and i know where his plane is, does that mean i defied physics?

[DeadFishFactory]

@deltians Only applies to waves, dude.

[ScientificScience]

Why are quantum physicists bad at sex?

Because when they find the position they can't find the momentum, and when the find the momentum they can't find the position.

[Smartboy7]

@ScientificScience Ahahaha. Oh, I feel so dorky for understanding that and still finding it to be funny.

[Aeronnax]

Are you using paper or a whiteboard?

I sure hope a whiteboard.

[Zgm95]

You Should talk about chaos theory!

[iamacreativeusername]

i got lost somewhere in the middle... those videos make me feel dumb :(

[10HOME10]

@iamacreativeusername ur not alone!

[MrBluBox]

you have to be on the verge of insanity to be a physicist. Any normal human being would think the theories are made by some smart ass who wants to annoy people by saying something otherworldly about something very basic.

[dargonfanatic]

@MrBluBox Not really. Im perfectly sane. The wall is turning into butterflies but that happens every now and again. See, perfectly sane, and im a physicist too!

[CALLxOFxDUTYxFREAKx2]

o.O i never knew a man could hold so much knowledge in a little brain

[Gyder124]

i am uncertain about this

[litojonny]

i got lost after 0:06

[Blufartofdoom]

you sir make physics cool

[comradehess]

@Blufartofdoom Physics being cool is a property of physics.

[tamtam299]

@Blufartofdoom False> Physics makes HIM cool.



[CanadianBear47]

i like his sheep :)



[sk8trchck443]

Was this about water?

[mvenom101]

Does this only make sense for waves?

because if i know where a car is (sitting in my garage) i still know how fast its going (its not)

So surely this only works for sin, and cos waves as they are simply a continuum of where a particle should travel at any given time.

[Nickelskov]

@mvenom101 It applies to sub atomic particles.

Basically, an observer interacts with the particle, and finds the information for one of the two things, but since you acted upon it one of them will change, if you know where it is, then its speed changes. If you know its speed, it's position changes.

Uncertainty Principle!

[MisterAlexUk]

All waves, literally every single wave you can draw out can be made up of an infinite sum of Cosine waves. This is called the Fourier Transform and it is used for analysing Frequency content.

I'm not sure I agree with what he has said for a couple of reasons.

Wave Velocity = Frequency * Speed of Light. Known frequency therefore means known velocity but doesn't give us any directional information.

In his second example, he uses a wavelet. Information can be derived from those too.

[ParaglidingManiac]

Beautiful illustrations are distracting:)

[circle559]

Why that it work that way? It's pure relativity,, if a car was moving almost as fast as light and never could stop, and were asked to describe how that car looks like,, you can only do so if the car moving slow enough or standing,, this would mean that you will need to move relative to the car so that the relative speed becomes less or zero,, then you will know where the car is relative to you and thus be able to describe.,, to tell the speed,, you will need to be still and the car moving.. So

[thenameissammy]

Why is it impossible to know the location of wave and how fast it's going?

[Faerunner]

@thenameissammy Think of it like watching a boat on a lake. You can tell from shore where the boat is, but if it's moving you'll have to keep watching the boat if you always want to know its exact location. Otherwise all you can do is imagine a line in the direction the boat's moving, and guess where it will be from its last known location and your estimate of its speed. If you're measuring -exactly- where the boat is, it's hard to measure its speed (frequency). And that's uncertainty!

[thenameissammy]

Why is it impossible to know the location of wave and how fast it's going?

[Annon91]

That analogy was awesome. I learnd something important today.

[xXTrulytXx]

i am uncertain i understand him

[littledrummerboymc]

you can determine where something is AND where it's going...if it's still.. you know where it is and the frequency of movement, which is nothing..so it will be in the same spot until it becomes acted on by an unbalanced force...that is the only counterexample

[ws1090]

@littledrummerboymc in order for sound, radio, even water waves to be standing still, they wouldn't exist at all. even if they're moving in a constant fashion, that does not make them stand still. sure, technically IF a wave was standing still, this may be the case, but it simply just doesn't happen

[littledrummerboymc]

@ws1090 i understand and agree with what your saying, but i'm naturally a smart ass and literalist haha

[MrAnonymoss]

legitimately love how exactly he explains it all, though some of the topics may be basic to my current understanding i wish i had encountered this many years ago

[rsn00b4life]

Why does he teach us middle school level stuff lol

[ChrisbeFoSerious]

You cannot know both the location of an atom AND its velocity at the same time. You either know one or the other. Basic Chemistry...

[plasted3]

Quantum Mechanics is weird right? But did you know that qwrflYKNJTEHIGARGwlRFghwghwkgh­lagjanhglavj.awk,ehalkdv alhbgafdgfhdszhtylo

Yeeah. I got it perfectly

[DukeofKool1]

@plasted3 But did YOU know that fhregeaku;ravblergraereluaralk­vrbsergulzbalruablibgzjnguilsr­gkrsaljaugbakljrgirntulgbitrsa­bntralsitbjarsialse;jtrnb? No, didn't think so.

[IslandRai]

@plasted3 Lol wut?

[BrandonTheMonkey]

@plasted3 This is the funniest thing I've ever read on YouTube.

[RenzIsTooAsian]

0:13 - No, sheep, you cannot be Nyan Cat.. -.-

[sk8trchck443]

My whole life was a lie.

[communityactionhero]

This is for Mom who teaches Phsics

[tonymagona334]

i learned nothing. back to studying astronomy :D

[MisterAlexUk]

@tonymagona334 Where you will ironically learn nothing. The errors involved are so enormous.

[tonymagona334]

@MisterAlexUk well, i learned humans give off infrared light. that's something i never knew lol

[sbeer6er]

why does quantom physics make no sense to me, what frame of mind do i have to be in?

[EpsilonUnitGaming]

I understand a lot of things, but this one eludes me. Maybe I just missed the point.

[maymm10]

Ugh...this brings back memories...horrible horrible wavelength calculation memories

[909flash]

Huh

[rjcartman]

Heisenberg? Breaking Bad anyone?

[Ralucaru]

Nice video!!

[VesSpellord]

Heisenberg gets pulled over by a cop.

Cop: Do you know how fast you were going?

Heisenberg:No, but I sure know where I am!

[b0n3z3z]

@VesSpellord Heisenberg and Schrodinger get pulled over in their car.

Cop: Do you know how fast you were going?

Heisenberg: No but I know exactly where I am.

*cop begins to search the car*

Cop: Hey, uh, did you know there's a dead cat in your trunk?

Schrodinger: No, but I do now.