- #1
erok81
- 464
- 0
I have a few questions regarding how/when to use which uncertainty principle formulas. I am not sure of the difference between them. I've checked my book and wiki and neither really helped.
Here are the formulas in question.
[tex]\Delta p \Delta x \approx \hbar[/tex]
[tex]\Delta p \Delta x \geq \frac{\hbar}{2}[/tex]
One of our homework assignments we had to find the velocity of an electron with a given x. So we used the first one and solved for v. I understand you can use, at the first one, for things like this when dealing with quantum level stuff. Is that correct?
I also saw the second one used by replacing the ≥ with an equal sign to find the minimum value of whatever variable we were working with. Which makes sense.
The only thing I don't understand is when is one preferred over the other? And can these be used to solve things like I mentioned above?
Here are the formulas in question.
[tex]\Delta p \Delta x \approx \hbar[/tex]
[tex]\Delta p \Delta x \geq \frac{\hbar}{2}[/tex]
One of our homework assignments we had to find the velocity of an electron with a given x. So we used the first one and solved for v. I understand you can use, at the first one, for things like this when dealing with quantum level stuff. Is that correct?
I also saw the second one used by replacing the ≥ with an equal sign to find the minimum value of whatever variable we were working with. Which makes sense.
The only thing I don't understand is when is one preferred over the other? And can these be used to solve things like I mentioned above?