This guy's pretty smart. He accurately defined Heisenberg's uncertainty principle and used that to describe a similarity he saw with the principle and human psychology. Even though Heisenberg was talking about quantum mechanics, I think the analogy is still accurate on a macro scale when talking about people's behavior patterns. Mike's even cooler than I gave him credit for when I was watching Dirty Jobs.
+Roshan Thomas I wish that type of thinking was common sense because it is to me... if more people naturally thought like that... my god I might be able to actually tolerate this world.
I frikkin love the dig at american chopper right the end!!!!! Mike rowe has an awesome on screen presence and i only wish there were more of him on tv!!!
Yes, it was Werner Heisenberg who formulated a principle stating there is uncertainty in determining the position and momentum of a microscopic object, but Mr. Rowe is confusing that with Erwin Schrödinger's thought experiment, which is about changing a system by observing it.
Heisenberg said that we can not know, with precision, the position and speed of a particle simultaneously. This is due to the interaction of that particle and packets of light (photons); commonly referred to as the observer effect. Schrodinger (or this thought experiment) showed how his cat could be alive and dead at the same time. Observing the cat's state would cause the wave function to collapse. It translates quantum indeterminacy to the macroscopic level. Mikes analogy was fine.
He mixed up Schrödinger with Heisenberg. Schrödinger said the act of observing something changed it. Heisenbergs uncertainty principle says measuring the location of an electron at any given time gives an uncertain result because it is constantly moving.
Oh, I should also mention that the 'observation' portion in schrodingers experiment , the one which talks of the wave function collapse, is actually someone elses interpretation. Schrodinger's paradox was meant to expose quantum indeterminacy and how mind boggling it can be.
Very succinct, rchandraonline, thank you. He did, at least, know Mr. Heisenberg's name and some information regarding quantum physics...I have to give him props for effort. He is intelligent, funny, and he can sing! Where do I find one of him? ;)
Right? That episode made me think,how strange the things you will eat when hungry. That would NOT be high on my list. But I also haven't had one either. LOL I think its just funny when you think of kimchi ,oysters and civet coffee. I believe they are good but I can't get past the yuck factor to try them.
