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Date: 1991
Question:
Is Heisenberg's Uncertiantly principle in conflict with modern physics where calculus is used, which demands continuity?


Replies:
I am afraid calculus was around long before Heisenberg, and in fact calculus is associated more with the quaint old physics of Newton etc. than with modern physics (though there is plenty of room for calculus still). But no, there is no conflict. You may be thinking that perhaps Heisenberg's principle suggests that space is discontinuous, but that is not true. It merely claims that for particles in space you cannot localize them to within a certain distance or else there momentum will become random and very large. This is quite different from discontinous space (which may actually be true at some very small length-scale).

Arthur Smith


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