Question #8a753
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Heisenberg developed his Uncertainty Principle after much thought and debate and argument with other quantum physicists and study of their published papers.
Heisenberg's theory began as debates he had with other physicists. The debates were on whether energy was continuous or came in discrete packets (quanta). Another debate was about whether light was both a wave and a stream of quanta.
In early 1927, Heisenberg was in Denmark working as Niels Bohr's research assistant. He worked through the implications of quantum theory and corresponded with Wolfgang Pauli (of the Pauli Exclusion Principle),
Heisenberg discovered a problem in the measurement of the variables in quantum mechanical equations.
He showed that uncertainties always turned up if one tried to measure the position and the momentum of a particle at the same time. These uncertainties in the measurements were not the fault of the experimenter. They were inherent in quantum mechanics.
In February 1927, Heisenberg outlined his discovery in a 14-page letter to Pauli. The letter evolved into a published paper. In it, he presented to the world for the first time what became known as the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle.
