/sci/ - Science & Math » Thread #12871735

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Anonymous Tue 23 Mar 09:46:43 2021 No.12871735 View Reply Original Report

Quoted By: >>12871744 >>12871753 >>12871758 >>12871759 >>12871762 >>12871802 >>12872176 >>12873316 >>12873353 >>12874253 >>12874447 >>12874558

>The Heisenberg uncertainty principle states that it is impossible to know both the position and velocity of a particle
Then how does the GPS know both the position and velocity of my car?

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 23 Mar 2021 09:49:50 No.12871744 Report

Quoted By: >>12871757 >>12875741

>>12871735
is your car a single particle?

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 23 Mar 2021 09:52:29 No.12871753 Report

Quoted By: >>12875741

>>12871735
GPS is from general relativity not qm

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 23 Mar 2021 09:54:12 No.12871757 Report

Quoted By:

>>12871744
yes

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 23 Mar 2021 09:54:28 No.12871758 Report

Quoted By: >>12871802 >>12875741

>>12871735
Your definition is just wrong. It is possible to know both the position and the velocity, just not precisely accurate. When you know the velocity to almost absolute accuracy, you don't know the position. But you can know them both a little bit inaccurate. Also, it has literally no effect on something as big as a car.

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 23 Mar 2021 09:54:42 No.12871759 Report

Quoted By:

>>12871735
the uncertainty depends on the drivers brain size, which in your case is very small

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 23 Mar 2021 09:55:51 No.12871762 Report

Quoted By:

>>12871735
the uncertainty depends on the driver's brain size, which in your case is very small

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 23 Mar 2021 09:58:35 No.12871768 Report

Quoted By: >>12871803 >>12873303 >>12875741

There's actually a lot of nuance in this question that I think is being ignored. The simple answer is that the Heisenberg uncertainty principle arises from the wave-nature of microscopic particles, and for things we can (approximately) treat as macroscopic particles, there's no need to apply it. Neat question though

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 23 Mar 2021 10:19:05 No.12871802 Report

Quoted By: >>12873081 >>12875741

>>12871735
>>12871758

The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle just says that you can't know the position and momentum with absolute precision.

If $\Delta x$ is the uncertainty in position and $\Delta p$ is the uncertainty in momentum, then the product $\Delta x \Delta p$ has to be greater than or equal to some amount $\frac{\hbar}{2}$ .

The thing to notice here is that $\frac{\hbar}{2}$ is -incredibly- small so it really only matters when you're trying to measure the position and momentum of things that are also very small. A human won't be able to notice such minute differences with their eyes.

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 23 Mar 2021 10:19:19 No.12871803 Report

Quoted By:

>>12871768
Out of curiosity can we get the non-simple answer?

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 23 Mar 2021 12:56:43 No.12872176 Report

Quoted By: >>12875741

>>12871735
>how does the GPS know both the position and velocity of my car
by making an estimate with a limited precision that is practically more than sufficient

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 23 Mar 2021 17:40:26 No.12873081 Report

Quoted By: >>12873103

>>12871802
so let me get this straight. There is a definite position and momentum, but we just cant observe both at the same time because we would disturb the particle?

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 23 Mar 2021 17:45:51 No.12873103 Report

Quoted By:

>>12873081
Imagine you are a blind man who wants to know the position of a ball. The only way to know is to throw another ball at the first ball. By doing so you know where the ball is but not it's exact position. Or something like that . . .

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 23 Mar 2021 18:29:01 No.12873303 Report

Quoted By:

>>12871768
If I understand correctly, ill elaborate on what this guy said. Everything in qm has a wave nature including bigger molecules, but the few photons from the act of observation hitting the tiny subatomic particles in a car will move it a ridiculously small amount, so for all reasonable intents and purposes you know the location of the car exactly.

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 23 Mar 2021 18:31:53 No.12873316 Report

Quoted By: >>12875741

>>12871735
GPS makes estimates. They can get notoriously inaccurate.

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 23 Mar 2021 18:37:26 No.12873353 Report

Quoted By: >>12875741

>>12871735
The GPS variables update at different intervals.

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 23 Mar 2021 22:28:02 No.12874253 Report

Quoted By: >>12875741

>>12871735
It knows one and guesses the other.

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 23 Mar 2021 23:07:14 No.12874447 Report

Quoted By:

>>12871735
GPS determines your position within a margin of error.
It only determines velocity based on the difference between two position fixes.

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 23 Mar 2021 23:27:50 No.12874558 Report

Quoted By:

>>12871735
satellite positioning using decimal degrees of 360
right?

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 24 Mar 2021 07:16:57 No.12875741 Report

Quoted By: >>12875745 >>12876106

>>12871744
>>12871768
>>12871753
>It's because the car is big
>>12874253
>>12871758
>>12871802
>>12872176
>>12873316
>It's because GPS isn't precise
>>12873353
>It switches back and forth between which one it knows
So which one is it? Why can't /sci/ come up with just one answer?

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 24 Mar 2021 07:20:53 No.12875745 Report

Quoted By:

>>12875741
>Why can't /sci/ come up with just one answer?
Well Plato said...

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 24 Mar 2021 09:34:59 No.12876106 Report

Quoted By:

>>12875741
>Why can't /sci/ come up with just one answer?
almost like a diverse cast of people with varying degrees of profession is browsing and posting on this site.
who would have guessed?

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