The focus on “observation” in quantum mechanics is dumb and damaging. In quantum mechanics observation means something very different from what people assume when you use the word observation.
When you say “if we observe the position of the electron” people think: “we put an observer who without interring in any active way and he looked at the electron to see where it is”. What QM actually means is more akin to “if we take a 200 Ton bulldozer and force the electron into one or two positions and then test which one it’s in”.
The very issue arising from
Observer effects is that you cannot have the system in a single state where for instance momentum and position are both observable, and observing either means forcing the system into a state where the other is “uncertain”, that is to say that it will have a distribution of outcomes if you use a different 200ton bulldozer to observe this parameter afterwards. The uncertainty principle basically tells you that the technical requirements for a “position bulldozer” and a “momentum bulldozer” makes it fundamentally and axiomatically impossible to make a single bulldozer that carries out both “observations”.
>The focus on “observation” in quantum mechanics is dumb and damaging. In quantum mechanics observation means something very different from what people assume when you use the word observation.
Which is still neither here nor there concerning this case.
Even with the different meaning of observation from "people assume when you use the word observation", Duane’s law still doesn't explain the outcome.
The point being made is that all observations change the thing being observed, so you have to be very careful what you measure and how you measure it. That is all. This is a basic point in science that is often missed. As here, apparently.
When you say “if we observe the position of the electron” people think: “we put an observer who without interring in any active way and he looked at the electron to see where it is”. What QM actually means is more akin to “if we take a 200 Ton bulldozer and force the electron into one or two positions and then test which one it’s in”.
The very issue arising from Observer effects is that you cannot have the system in a single state where for instance momentum and position are both observable, and observing either means forcing the system into a state where the other is “uncertain”, that is to say that it will have a distribution of outcomes if you use a different 200ton bulldozer to observe this parameter afterwards. The uncertainty principle basically tells you that the technical requirements for a “position bulldozer” and a “momentum bulldozer” makes it fundamentally and axiomatically impossible to make a single bulldozer that carries out both “observations”.