Re: Heisenberg uncertainty principle for macroscopic objects

[Vern Lindberg <vwlsps@RITVAX.ISC.RIT.EDU>]

I don't know about elephants, but December's Physics Today cites
Zeilinger's report in Nature 401, 680, 1999 about experimental evidence of
interference of Buckyballs (C-60) through "slits 50 nm wide and 100 nm
apart." Sounds like a good article to follow up since it also talks about
the buckyballs "retain[ing] their quantum coherence" and being ideal for
exploring the "boundary between quantum and classical physics."

> It's more years than I care to count since I studied (or taught) quantum
> mechanics, so I need a bit of help with a discussion I am having ... I
> had thought that the standard popular science type discussion of
> Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, where it is claimed that there is a
> ridiculously small but non-zero probability that an elephant could
> quantum-tunnel through a wall, was falacious because the uncertainty
> principle doesn't apply to a macroscopic, incoherent assembly of
> particles like an elephant. Am I wrong?
> Cheers
> Margaret

Dr. Vern Lindberg                       716-475-2546
Department of Physics                   Fax 475-5766
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Rochester Institute of Technology       Computer Haiku
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                                         A file that big?
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