## Heisenberg Online Assessment Question

$\Delta p \Delta x\geq \frac{h}{4\pi }$

FizaBaloch1J
Posts: 41
Joined: Fri Apr 06, 2018 11:01 am

### Heisenberg Online Assessment Question

I also had a question on how to go about solving this Heisenberg Uncertainty problem.

The hydrogen atom has a radius of approximately 0.05 nm. Assume that we know the position of an electron to an accuracy of 1 % of the hydrogen radius, calculate the uncertainty in the speed of the electron using the Heisenberg uncertainty principle.

So what I know is that deltax is .05nm which I should then convert into m which would become .05 x 10^-9 m. And we are solving for deltav? so do we use deltap=(m)deltav to solve for it? Is m the mass of an electron which is a constant and then deltap is .01? I am not sure if that's right. Or do we solve for deltap by the equation deltap x deltax > h/4pi and use that delta p to solve for deltav?

Chem_Mod
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### Re: Heisenberg Online Assessment Question

This tells us $\Delta x=.01(.05\ nm)=5\times 10^{-13}\ m$

Yes, we are solving for $\Delta p$ in $\Delta p\Delta x=\frac{h}{4\pi}$ and using that $\Delta p$ to solve for $\Delta v$ in $\Delta p=m\Delta v$