+/- x meters ? [ENDORSED]

[Grace Boyd 2F]

I have a question about Heisenberg's Indeterminacy Equation. In my discussion, I believe it was mentioned that if the meters are given as +/- __meters, you double this amount for the total delta x position. Is this correct? I just want to confirm before Test 3. Thank you!

[Seth_Evasco1L]

Yup! That would be correct! If it states "the uncertainty in position is __ meters", then there's no need to double it as that would be the uncertainty value you would use, but in your case where there is +/- __ meters, you would double the value given to get the range of the uncertainty in position.

[Hellen Truong 2J]

This is also true for uncertainty in speed! On example 1.7, it shows you that you need to double the uncertainty because it is given as +/- 1.0 m/s, so when you plug it into the Heisenberg equation, it should be 2.0 m/s.