| “Even in principle, we cannot know the present in all detail. For that reason everything observed is a selection from a plenitude of possibilities and a limitation on what is possible in the future.” |
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–Werner Heisenberg |
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Heisenberg, Werner. Uber den
anschaulichen Inhalt der quantentheoretischen Kinematik und Mechanik, in
Zeitschrift fur Physik, pp. 172-198, volume 43 (the whole issue, pp.155-
298, offered). Berlin: Julius Springer, 1927. Octavo, original printed
wrappers respined. Custom half-leather box. $8500. “The more precisely the position is determined, the less precisely the momentum is known in this instant, and vice versa.” -Heisenberg The first edition, first printing, of Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle, one of the most important and celebrated findings in modern physics. “In 1927, the German physicist Werner Heisenberg, a theorist, showed that quantum physics and the wave-particle duality of nature forbid the precise measurement of the initial conditions of a particle, or anything else. If the initial conditions cannot be measures precisely, then the future conditions cannot be predicted precisely. Heisenberg’s result is not a statement about the inability to construct good measuring devices. It is a statement about an intrinsic property of nature… Nature has an essential indeterminacy. Nature can be pinned down only so far and no farther. Heisenberg’s result, called the uncertainty principle, is one of the most important and famous discoveries of all science” (Lightman, Great Ideas in Physics, 210). Wrappers respined, very light soiling and wear, evidence of stamp removal on front wrapper; interior fine. Rare, particularly in original wrappers. |
