The Relation of Wave and Particle Viewpoints: Feynman's Physics Explained

Feynman Vol III11-12

The wave and particle natures are two complementary sides of one reality, tied together by Heisenberg's uncertainty principle: you cannot know both a particle's exact position and its exact momentum at once. This is not a limit of our instruments but a fact of nature. A particle with definite momentum is a wave spread over all space; a particle at a definite place is a tight pulse built from many wavelengths. The more you pin down one, the more the other blurs.

The big idea

Position and momentum can never both be exactly known at once.

Think about it

If pinning down where a particle is blurs how fast it moves, what does that say about the very idea of a precise 'trajectory'?

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