Disambiguation Links – Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle (S/F)
Developed in 1927 by Werner Heisenberg (for whom it is sometimes named), the uncertainty principle is any variety of mathematical inequalities which assert a fundamental limit to the precision that certain pairs of properties can be known simultaneously. The more precisely the position is determined, the less precisely its momentum can be known, and vice versa. The uncertainty principle has been historically confused with the observer effect, which notes that measurements of certain systems or environments cannot be made without affecting them in some way; if a scientist goes into the forest to study animals in their natural environment, his very presence affects how the animals behave, thus contaminating his observations to some degree.
