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Re: quantum mechanics of small objects (From the PhyShare list)

At 08:16 AM 5/23/01 -0400, Chuck Britton wrote:

... (having absolutely no volume) would
completely break the Heissenburg Uncertanty Principle? If I'm seeing things
correctly, something is wrong, Heissenburg, or the current model for the
Black Hole.


What is allegedly wrong?

I don't know of any Heisenberg-like equation that has volume on one side
and anything of interest on the other side.

In contrast, I do know of an equation that relates the _position_ of the
object to its momentum, but that's not at all the same thing as volume.

I've spent quite a bit of time playing with objects whose size is tiny
compared to their uncertainty in position. (Take some monatomic hydrogen
or sodium and get it reeeal cold -- milliKelvins or microKelvins.)

Such objects do not require a repeal of the laws of physics -- but there
are some interesting wrinkles. For starters, you should not think of them
as hard little billiard balls that bounce off of each other; you should
think of them as fluffy little clouds that diffract _through_ each other.

The following will give you scads of additional information
http://www.google.com/search?q=atom+trapping+Kelvin