HEISENBERG, Werner. Über den anschaulichen Inhalt der quantentheoretischen Kinematik und Mechanik. Berlin, Julius Springer, 1927. In:Zeitschrift für Physik, Volume 43, p.172-198. The entire volume offered, vii,936 pp. Contemporary cloth-backed marbled boards with cloth tips, nicely gilt stamped. An ex-library copy with only their bookplate and a half-faded-away rubberstamp on the title page. A fine, tight copy. $3500
“The uncertainty principle is certainly one of the most famous and important aspects of quantum mechanics. It has often been regarded as the most distinctive feature in which quantum mechanics differs from classical theories of the physical world. Roughly speaking, the uncertainty principle (for position and momentum) states that one cannot assign exact simultaneous values to the position and momentum of a physical system. Rather, these quantities can only be determined with some characteristic ‘uncertainties’ that cannot become arbitrarily small simultaneously...”--Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
“Heisenberg introduced his now famous relations in an article of 1927, entitled "Ueber den anschaulichen Inhalt der quantentheoretischen Kinematik und Mechanik". A (partial) translation of this title is: "On the anschaulich content of quantum theoretical kinematics and mechanics". Here, the term anschaulich is particularly notable. Apparently, it is one of those German words that defy an unambiguous translation into other languages. Heisenberg's title is translated as "On the physical content …" by Wheeler and Zurek (1983). His collected works (Heisenberg, 1984) translate it as "On the perceptible content …", while Cassidy's biography of Heisenberg (Cassidy, 1992), refers to the paper as "On the perceptual content …". Literally, the closest translation of the termanschaulich is ‘visualizable’. But, as in most languages, words that make reference to vision are not always intended literally. Seeing is widely used as a metaphor for understanding, especially for immediate understanding. Hence, anschaulich also means ‘intelligible’ or ‘intuitive'. ----Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
English translation in (Wheeler, J.A. and Zurek, W.H. (eds), Quantum Theory and Measurement (Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press). 1983 pp. 62-84.
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