In Our Time: Science

Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle


Listen Later

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the German physicist who, at the age of 23 and while still a student, effectively created quantum mechanics for which he later won the Nobel Prize. Werner Heisenberg made this breakthrough in a paper in 1925 when, rather than starting with an idea of where atomic particles were at any one time, he worked backwards from what he observed of atoms and their particles and the light they emitted, doing away with the idea of their continuous orbit of the nucleus and replacing this with equations. This was momentous and from this flowed what’s known as his Uncertainty Principle, the idea that, for example, you can accurately measure the position of an atomic particle or its momentum, but not both.

With

Fay Dowker

Professor of Theoretical Physics at Imperial College London

Harry Cliff

Research Fellow in Particle Physics at the University of Cambridge

And

Frank Close

Professor Emeritus of Theoretical Physics and Fellow Emeritus at Exeter College at the University of Oxford

Producer: Simon Tillotson

Reading list:

Philip Ball, Beyond Weird: Why Everything You Thought You Knew about Quantum Physics Is Different (Vintage, 2018)

John Bell, ‘Against 'measurement'’ (Physics World, Vol 3, No 8, 1990)

Mara Beller, Quantum Dialogue: The Making of a Revolution (University of Chicago Press, 2001)

David C. Cassidy, Beyond Uncertainty: Heisenberg, Quantum Physics, And The Bomb (Bellevue Literary Press, 2010)

Werner Heisenberg, Physics and Philosophy (first published 1958; Penguin Classics, 2000)

Carlo Rovelli, Helgoland: The Strange and Beautiful Story of Quantum Physics (Penguin, 2022)

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

In Our Time: ScienceBy BBC Radio 4

  • 4.6
  • 4.6
  • 4.6
  • 4.6
  • 4.6

4.6

674 ratings


More shows like In Our Time: Science

View all
In Our Time by BBC Radio 4

In Our Time

5,411 Listeners

The Documentary Podcast by BBC World Service

The Documentary Podcast

1,850 Listeners

F1: Chequered Flag by BBC Radio 5 Live

F1: Chequered Flag

787 Listeners

Global News Podcast by BBC World Service

Global News Podcast

7,815 Listeners

History Extra podcast by Immediate Media

History Extra podcast

3,209 Listeners

5 Live Science Podcast by BBC Radio 5 Live

5 Live Science Podcast

108 Listeners

6 Minute English by BBC Radio

6 Minute English

1,790 Listeners

Learning English Conversations by BBC Radio

Learning English Conversations

1,078 Listeners

Science In Action by BBC World Service

Science In Action

342 Listeners

More or Less: Behind the Stats by BBC Radio 4

More or Less: Behind the Stats

904 Listeners

The Infinite Monkey Cage by BBC Radio 4

The Infinite Monkey Cage

2,068 Listeners

Newshour by BBC World Service

Newshour

1,054 Listeners

In Our Time: History by BBC Radio 4

In Our Time: History

1,888 Listeners

In Our Time: Culture by BBC Radio 4

In Our Time: Culture

587 Listeners

In Our Time: Religion by BBC Radio 4

In Our Time: Religion

276 Listeners

In Our Time: Philosophy by BBC Radio 4

In Our Time: Philosophy

848 Listeners

The Life Scientific by BBC Radio 4

The Life Scientific

246 Listeners

Unexpected Elements by BBC World Service

Unexpected Elements

357 Listeners

BBC Inside Science by BBC Radio 4

BBC Inside Science

395 Listeners

Dan Snow's History Hit by History Hit

Dan Snow's History Hit

4,595 Listeners

Americast by BBC News

Americast

766 Listeners

You're Dead to Me by BBC Radio 4

You're Dead to Me

3,041 Listeners

The Ancients by History Hit

The Ancients

2,842 Listeners