May, 2003
Steven B. Zwickel
In 2003, someone in Guangzhou, China sent me a long email by mistake. It started out like this:
UNCERTAINTY PRINCIPLE
IS
UNTENABLE
By reanalysing the experiment of Heisenberg Gamma-Ray Microscope and one of ideal experiment from which uncertainty principle is derived , it is found that actually uncertainty principle can not be obtained from these two ideal experiments . And it is found that uncertainty principle is untenable.
…and the article went on to describe, in great detail, two experiments (with formulas and equations) proving that Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle is, probably, not right. I am guessing, here, because I lack the ability to interpret all the math and physics, but I did feel that my unknown correspondent deserved a response, so here it is:
I don't know why you sent me this. I am not a physicist.
My thoughts about Uncertainty:
Are there cockroaches in my kitchen?
✔ I think that there might be cockroaches in my kitchen. I have not seen them, but my neighbors have told me that they are common in our building. Mathematically, it would be surprising if I did NOT have cockroaches in my apartment.
✔ I think they come at night, but if I go into the kitchen and turn on the light, there is nothing there that I can see. If I leave the light on during the night, I won't see cockroaches either.
✔ To test my hypothesis that there are cockroaches in the kitchen, I left some crumbs on the floor. The next morning, the crumbs were gone. Something made the crumbs move.
✔ For the next test, I spread a thin layer of oil in a circle around a few crumbs. The next morning, the crumbs were gone but I was able to note a narrow trail of oil leading to the corner of the cupboard.
✔ Therefore, I conclude that there are cockroaches in my kitchen and they probably live under the cupboard. They can't be seen when you turn on the light, because the light makes them run away. The very act of looking for them makes it impossible to find them although there is other evidence that they were there.
✔ Final experiment: set a cockroach trap along the trail of oil between the crumbs and the cupboard. Statistically, this is the most likely place to find cockroaches.
✔ But you never know. . .
Why family therapy works.
As a long-time psychotherapist, I know that I can help people if I can get them to talk about their problems. What is so surprising is how often talking about a problem is effective, even if I (as therapist) don't offer an new insights or help.
When you ask someone to talk about their parents, their spouse, or their children, they have to put their emotions into words. This process is still not terribly well understood, but language skills are extremely complex and it must use an enormous amount of brain power to do this.
What happens though, is that, as they convert their feelings into words, they actually change they way they view things. Something happens when you turn your emotions into phrases and sentences. Perhaps these things become more "real" or more managable to the speaker. It's amazing to listen to someone talking about his or her relationship to a parent, for example, and to hear them framing ideas in different ways. They leave therapy with a different perspective, even if nothing actually "happened" during the session.
Maybe Heisenberg was wrong about sub-atomic particles, but my experience has been that the act of examining one's relationship changes that relationship.
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