Application of Heisenberg's Uncertainty

[Samin Kabir]

Why does the Heisenberg Uncertainty equation apply to only small objects and not big objects?

[Shanna Yu 1C]

Hi!

Large objects with large masses have such small uncertainties in their positions that it's very, very hard to see with anything we have available to us, much less to the naked eye. It's not that it's not applicable, just that the uncertainty for larger objects is too small to be noticeable or significant, if I'm not mistaken. Uncertainties are only observable for really small (microscopic) things, like you said.

[VincentLe_3A]

If you take a look at the manipulated version of the Heisenberg Uncertainty equation, where we change Δp to mΔv and divide it on both sides, we get Δx >= h/ (4π)(mΔv). According to this equation, mass is inversely proportional to the uncertainty in position. So a really large mass would result in a very small number on the right side of the equation, making the uncertainty in position insignificant for massive objects. Therefore, it is most useful to be used on microscopic objects with small masses.