"Odysseus" wrote...
in message ...

BenignVanilla wrote:

I think it is perfectly valid to use the UP in either the macro or the micro
realm. As I understand it, the UP says (in laymen's terms) that we cannot
measure both the velocity and the position of an object simultaneously as
measuring one aspect will affect the other.

According to some (e.g. proponents of the "Copenhagen
interpretation") it goes deeper than that; they would say that a
particle simply cannot have a position and a momentum that are both
well defined. A major unresolved issue with the case as you put it is
that it's still quite unclear what constitutes a "measurement" -- one
might consider it the new version of the old
tree-falling-in-a-forest-with-nobody-there-to-hear conundrum.

But at any rate the uncertainty principle is pretty much irrelevant
to macroscopic objects. From the formulation "delta-x times delta-p
equals h divided by twice pi", considering how tiny h (Planck's
constant) is, you should be able to see that for any macroscopic
object the uncertainty is negligible.

--
Odysseus

And that's a GOOD thing... otherwise humans would occasionally
beget ostriches!

happy days and...
starry starry nights!

--
Sweet home, oh Precious Earth,
The ONLY home we know,
Tell us what you need of worth,
And we can make it so.

Do you want our hearts to beat
And thrive within your air?
Then teach us what we know we need
So we can learn to care.

Paine Ellsworth