Heisenberg

[Guzman_1J]

So the Heisenberg uncertainty principle has to do with BOTH the physical limit to the min. size that atoms can exist, and to the momentum and position of an electron? How exactly are they related?

[Bilal Pandit 1J]

The Heisenberg principle highlights that the exact position of an electron cannot be found and that there will always be a level of uncertainty. When they used the size of the nucleus of a hydrogen atom to find the level of uncertainty, they got a value that was so large (greater than the speed of light I believe) that it made no sense. As a result, the minimum size of an atom had to be greater than just the size of the nucleus.

[Brianna Becerra 1B]

They are related in so that due to the wavelike properties, we can not know the exact momentum or position at the same time. In fact, the more we know about one, the less we will know about the other and vice versa. This exhibits the Complementarity of location and momentum so if one property is known, the other can not be.

[quresh3E]

What exactly is momentum?

[Lauren Stack 1C]

To address Quresh’s question:
Momentum is found by multiplying mass times velocity (p=mv). It describes the amount of resistance to stopping that an object in motion has. If you think about two balls rolling at the same velocity but with different weights, the heavier one has more momentum and is thus harder to stop. I think about it as the amount of forward motion/force an object has and consequently how much force and energy would need to be exerted in order to stop it. I’ve also heard it described as the quantity of motion an object has.

[Connor Ho 1B]

Schrodinger's equation is basically meant to prove that there is no way to prove definitely where an electron is and how fast an electron is moving. In addition, the more you may know about one, leads to knowing less about the other detail. For example, if you do happen to know the speed of an electron with a small margin of error, then you will have a larger margin of error when finding the location.