Friday, 10 September 2010

the uncertainty principle

Ever heard of Heisenberg's principle? OK, smarty-pants; most of us haven't heard of it. But I came across a reference to it in an article in the NYT on learning habits and was intrigued.

Apparently it stems from quantum physics and is simply stated in Wikipedia as stating that


by precise inequalities...certain pairs of physical properties, such as position and momentum, cannot be simultaneously known to arbitrarily high precision. That is, the more precisely one property is measured, the less precisely the other can be measured.

Which got me thinking: how often does that happen in life? You look intensely at one thing, you lose the ability to correctly perceive another. Step back; take stock. Keep the bigger picture in view.

Kudos, Mr Heisenberg.