Breaking The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle

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Quantum mechanics forbids us from measuring the universe beyond a certain level of precision. But that doesn’t stop us from trying. And in some cases succeeding, by squeezing the Heisenberg uncertainty principle to its breaking point.
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Hosted by Matt O'Dowd
Written by Katie McCormick & Matt O'Dowd
Graphics by Leonardo Scholzer, Yago Ballarini, Pedro Osinski, Adriano Leal & Stephanie Faria
GFX Visualizations: Katherine Kornei
Directed by Andrew Kornhaber
Assistant Producer: Setare Gholipour
Executive Producers: Eric Brown & Andrew Kornhaber
End Credits Music by J.R.S. Schattenberg: / @jrsschattenberg
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[@pbsspacetime]

Correction: The wonderful folks at LIGO reached out and let us know that they *have* in fact used squeezed light in the 2019-2020 observation run. Congratulations to LIGO for yet another incredible innovation and our apologies for the error!

[@maxpayne3219]

I Think they have also used the "stretched light" as well.

[@RME76048]

That was a misleading title. Nothing was "broken" because the principle remained intact, as expected. Interesting how LIGO resolves greater detail by narrowing the uncertainty of one parameter as the other -- and less important -- increased. But, nothing was *broken*.

[@GSPV33]

Awesome. Thanks for the excellent video. Big fan of what y'all do.

[@happyfrybreadbushcraftands8637]

My GF gave me a light squeeze just the other day. I was as happy as LIGO!

[@WFrench110]

Precision baby

[@sebastianelytron8450]

Why was Heisenberg's wife unhappy? Whenever he had the energy, he didn't have the time.

[@carpemkarzi]

Boo hiss. Ahh I’m just mad I didn’t say it.

[@wearemany73]

...just then a tachyon walks into a bar...the barman says...😁

[@jonathanhinchliffe672]

Not to mention when he had the position he didnt have the momentum

[@Wave1dave]

@@jonathanhinchliffe672 Hahaha, it perfectly works both ways. Imagine him having the momentum but uncertain position (probably somewhere public)

[@BlackSunCompany]

@@Wave1dave I usually hear it as both at the same time. Why is it inappropriate to make a "dad joke" if you're not a father? It's a faux pa.

[@henryginn7490]

A quote from my quantum lecturer about the Heisenberg uncertainty principle: "The worst thing about this is that it is actually true"

[@zes3813]

wrongx

[@SteveDorrans]

Oooooh.....shouldn't they have said "probably true"?

[@henryginn7490]

@@SteveDorrans well just like everything in science it's got an unspoken asterisk saying "as far as we know with the current understanding and experimental results, and assuming the laws of logic hold, the laws of physics are consistent, object permanence, the universe exists, etc"

[@SteveDorrans]

@@henryginn7490 Sure.....they probably just missed the irony in saying the uncertainty principle is certainly true. I'm guessing it was in the USA then?

[@birdthompson]

@@hyperduality2838 Buddha: the 2 are 1

[@tomkerruish2982]

Star Trek has Heisenberg compensators as part of the transporter. When Mike Okuda was asked how they work, he replied, "Very well, thank you."

[@dwightk.schrute8696]

And quantum discriminator is in every class room.

[@SidneyCritic]

My goodness, you've got a good memory.

[@tomf3150]

Only tng.

[@CaptNSquared]

That's what I loved about classic Star Trek. With a little bit of scientific knowledge you can piece together what everything actually does, at least at the high level, and it's all extremely internally consistent. Of course we don't know how it works, but we know why it works.

[@NeonVisual]

In the reboot star treks everything is powered by mushrooms, fight scenes, lots of crying and advanced forms of woke.

[@7shinta7]

It will never cease to amaze me how these people find solutions for problems they derived from asking questions I couldn't even imagine.

[@squoblat]

Give yourself enough time in a room with other inquisitive people and you'll start coming up with a few. Sincerely, a physicist.

[@Awesomes007]

I think it’s either unfathomable or it frightens a lot of certain types of people that there are others soooo much more clever than they are.

[@billrich9722]

I don’t imagine that’s hard to do.

[@Sanquinity]

@@joebaby739 funny story about 42... apparently if you use pi to the 42th decimal you could calculate the circumference of the entire universe with a deviation the width of a single proton. Or so I've heard.

[@maxwellsequation4887]

@@billrich9722 have you ever tried?

[@andreguimaraes9347]

Awesome episode as always! Quick side-note from someone that works at LIGO here. We set the interferometer up such that the waves don't actually destructively interfere completely, only partially. That is because a completely destructive interference makes the detector the least sensitive to small changes in the differential length of the arm (That would be the bottom of a sine wave on an intensity vs differential arm length plot). Keeping it at the 1/2 max intensity would make the light output to change the most with differential length (right between bottom and peak of sine wave) but it would also introduce too much noise (not sure on the specifics there). So the interferometer is kept at about 1/4 or so of the maximum intensity :)

[@piupiu-ti4dd]

Nice remark! It looks like you heterodyne a signal at the half of its amplitude. Makes sense!

[@Rasecz]

That’s insane what they’re doing at Ligo. What a time to be alive

[@wolfboyft]

imagine how much more it could be without these military budgets (and imagine how much better our lives would be materially too)

[@yuklungleung620]

Two minute paper

[@DjSapsan]

Hold on to your interferometer

[@Crossfirev]

@@wolfboyft yeah world peace is a pretty big button issue

[@andrewolivetreemixing]

@@DjSapsan haha these two channels share a lot of their fans

[@trucid2]

Cop pulls Heisenberg over and asks, "Sir, do you know how fast you were going?" Heisenberg replies, "No, but I can tell you exactly where I am."

[@jarzez]

The cop responds, "You were going precisely 102 km/h" Heisenberg: "Wow thanks, now I'm completely lost..."

[@KiwiandhisKite]

And then he gets pepper sprayed and arrested

[@sujimayne]

@@KiwiandhisKite He's not black

[@dakotadad8835]

@@sujimayne 🙄

[@KatyaAbc575]

This comment section is haunted.

[@KonekoEalain]

As I become more certain that I love this show, I become less certain of why I got up and came into the kitchen.

[@salvadorperez2997]

You might be in your kitchen and not .... at the same time

[@KonekoEalain]

@@salvadorperez2997 But I can't bump myself with the fridge door because the me that is in the way, is in my future.

[@Sexnuf4u]

@@salvadorperez2997 if nobody observed him in the kitchen, then was he there and not there at the same time?

[@jasonr9157]

this is called the uncertainty principle

[@abhayshankar8762]

You went to grab a drink and a snack.

[@fakeliner1860]

I've been watching this channel for a while now, and learned a lot! But I'm still amazed by Prof. Matt's sick side-stepping skillz. It's like he knows when the text or pictures will appear. Effortlessly he glides aside and back again without even blinking. Any river-dancer could learn a thing or two from this guy!

[@Thomas.Wright]

He's quantum tunneling.

[@Thomas.Wright]

@@itsfonk WHAT? NO WAY!

[@Thomas.Wright]

@@itsfonk Yeah, I knew that. My first degree included television editing. Both myself and I presume Fake were being sarcastic.

[@ebnftl2272]

That’s why I said if you’re not reading from a script….YOU THE MAN!

[@j3i2i2yl7]

The way they edit out the sound of his feet shuffeling side to side is impressive too :)

[@ThomasGutierrez]

Great video. I'm not sure I would call it "breaking" but rather simply "using" the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. It is more of a celebration of how to exploit it technologically in novel ways than a demonstration of pushing it beyond physical limits.

[@rohanmeerhaeghe3621]

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. What they're calling 'breaking' is actually the uncertainty principle in itself.

[@hazbinhotel8436]

@@rohanmeerhaeghe3621 It has barely just begun....and I'm holding on with baited breath.....because I've never been so nervous about some of the things I have theorized predicted, I'm worried about those things being correct.....well I'm not sure I necessarily feel bad (I might feel thrilled/vindicated) however.....the things/new technologies that could arise.....just um...yup nope... It's all a bit too spooky bendy action-y quantum supremacy-y and um Pandora's box-y...so much so that it only requires a 4d universe... But maybe certain things are better off remaining in the dark.

[@MarsStarcruiser]

@@hazbinhotel8436 Nah, you don’t have to worry. Some measurements will perpetually incur paradoxical displacement, where accounting for variables within the system…from within the system…😅

[@somewherenorthofstarbase7056]

He is taking advantage of "clickbait."

[@denissavgir2881]

Matt will always be able to end an episode with "spacetime"

[@YellowPenetrator]

In spacetime XD

[@MSpacer]

Hm, what's the complementary variable to the uncertainty of Matt saying "spacetime" at the end of the episode?

[@zeroblue76]

Of course. That's called the O'Dowd Certainty Principle.

[@mjolnir3309]

He's had to reach for it a couple times, but most of the time it's pretty smooth. sometimes downright clever.

[@thingsiplay]

Once there was an episode where I got upset, because it did not end with "spacetime". But after listening carefully, I found out it was a genius: "blah blah blah's pace time" (where the blah was real talk)

[@orangeSoda35]

I don't need protection from uncertainty. I am the uncertainty. - Werner Heisenberg

[@Roshkin]

Werner "Breaking Bad" Heisenberg

[@sigmata0]

Are you sure?

[@morgengabe1]

"I'm the one who kicks"

[@HH-ru4bj]

"I am a leaf in the wind!" "What?!" "I'm a leaf in the wind, it's what I say!" "Ok..."

[@nickdibart]

@@HH-ru4bj Strange place for a Firefly reference but it 's always welcome.

[@MarkusAldawn]

"When he was *inventing his own version of quantum mechanics.*" Mad

[@CSSuser]

Yeah. Imagine inventing your own version of something nobody understands.

[@agm1112]

And in his 20s :)

[@hazbinhotel8436]

@@CSSuser What about it? I mean...Time field theory works so damn well with the standard model without me even fully understanding how the standard model was even derived and the theory fully exists in 4d spacetime (General Relativity) so I'm calling that.... Freaking SOMETHING and some of the predictions too....the formal simplification of numerical systems and sets of calculations.....you even get time causal inevitabilities that *have* to give rise to the orders of dimensions and time/energy properties contained therein.

[@orri93]

I think 🤔 the title is misleading. What you are proposing is not breaking the principle. Breaking the principle would be able to set up a measurement where ∆x∆p

[@jackwilliams1468]

Matt, I started watching PBS Spacetime at the end of my junior year/start of my senior year in high school. These videos played a large role in my decision to study physics for my bachelor degree. Earlier this year, I started my PhD in theoretical atomic physics. When I saw the title of this video, I knew it had to be on squeezed quadratures. This summer I'm working on research about squeezed spin quadrature! So I just wanted to say thanks for the awesome lessons, and I look forward to many more.

[@sinisterjuggalo4364]

This kind of stuff gives me an existential crisis, and I love it.

[@SimonClarkstone]

9:35 is a funny one; the increased certainty in the phase causes increased noise in the amplitude. You have to be careful to understand what is meant by "uncertainty" else it sounds like magic.

[@brendawilliams8062]

I have entertainment. I am not building the earth

[@infinitumneo840]

Everything is going to be alright. It's only basic wave mechanic's.

[@brendawilliams8062]

@@infinitumneo840 yeah. My imagination. It’s fun

[@kristynicole6201]

Thats interesting, its the opposite for me. I find comfort in learning about the deep truths of the universe that will still be true long after I am gone... if they turn out to be wrong ill be pissed but guess Ill never know.

[@Todesnuss]

A non-linear crystal acts basically like a symmetric transformer in professional audio applications. It regularly amazes me how my knowledge of audio engineering helps me wrap my head around quantum phenomena.

[@kaitlyn__L]

Totally. When I was a little teenager I gave up understanding quantum, got into optics and audio, and when I finally came back to quantum I could understand a ton of it.

[@Giantcrabz]

it's all just waaaaves maaaan

[@dakotadad8835]

I wish this channel had videos every day, I absolutely love it. Love the topics, love the host, and love the efforts of everyone who works on it! Thanks PBS space time you keep making vids and we’ll keep watching! 🚀

[@drfill9210]

The shortest measurable amount of time is the gap between when the light turns green and the cab driver behind you beeps the horn. Rip Terry Pratchett.

[@rtfacts5317]

What a coincidence, i am in 11th grade and yesterday my teacher was explaining heisenberg principle. I needed an more neat explanation and now here is your video.

[@bigsmall246]

Unfortunately, most teachers don't understand anything about quantum mechanics cus they didn't learn it in school. Most are just regurgitating facts without Understanding.

[@kaitlyn__L]

@@bigsmall246 thankfully mine was different since he actually had a PhD in it! He did a very good job of summarising quantum weirdness when the class had questions, but without being sidetracked too long and went back to what the curriculum said he should be teaching. Also he shared lots of cheesy physics jokes, had a few such XKCDs printed out on his wall, and put Futurama on in his last day before moving to another school at the end of the year. He was awesome.

[@bigsmall246]

@@kaitlyn__L that's great! But sadly teachers with enough interest to get a PhD exist mostly only in universities.

[@kaitlyn__L]

@@bigsmall246 yeah, I was very lucky that he took a secondary school teaching job. Especially since he moved there when I started and he left the year I finished - his next job was as a department head and he lamented to me that he probably wouldn’t actually have a class there. But the pay was too good to stay. All rather serendipitous. I do often wonder if I wouldn’t have fallen in love with physics were it not for him, especially as he was actually my science teacher (later physics teacher in the final years when they were separate) in about half the years, but there were enough of them in the school that we could’ve had a totally different one each year like I did maths teachers.

[@RenatoMelloSF]

I hate to be "that guy" but unfortunately this video's misleading. Nothing shown here "breaks" the uncertainty principle. Actually, everything about squeezed light only exists precisely because the uncertainty principle is not broken. This video is the baitest of clicks.

[@Numba003]

Engineers for things like LIGO are so much more impressive than they often get credit for. This is astounding. Stay well out there everybody, and God bless you friends. :)

[@rodrigoserafim8834]

Universe: "Know my rules well, so you can break them effectively."

[@juliendev2191]

Its not exactly breaking the rules - bending is the wrong word too, it's just obeying them ? The principle still applies after all

[@fllthdcrb]

@@juliendev2191 @Julien IMO, the best word is one Matt used in the episode: "gaming". They're gaming the rules.

[@hazbinhotel8436]

Listen...the space police are GOING to arrest you if you break the laws of physics....Beware galactic imperial lego police state! The communist rebels with their stupid ano-band communication of theirs...uuggghhhh! They're *find-tuning* over there, alright....yeah, you betcha....they're time travelers......busta....some of them....even have machines... and now......... THEY WANT THE MEANS!!!!!

[@andriypredmyrskyy7791]

A really cool example of how complementary variables show up in real life is happening right here on KZbin! Consider watching your favorite physics channel at 2x speed. The reason Matt doesn't sound like a squirrel when you're doing that is because KZbin tries to keep the frequency information of the audio at each instant along the video the same even though the video is going twice as fast. To do this, you need to know the frequency content of the audio at each instant, BUT you can't get frequency information from just a single audio sample, that's just a point. Instead they try to take as short an audio sample as possible, which is called a "short Fourrier transform" (I think) of the audio with a small window. The smaller the window, the more the sample represents a single instant in time, but also necessarily has more uncertainty in the frequency content of that window. The longer you make the window, the more frequencies you can notice, but the less those frequencies correspond to a single instant. To my mind it is the simplest example of complementary variables that I can think of.

[@kaitlyn__L]

Indeed, and you can hear this in various electronic albums of the late 90s and early 00s, when pitch shifting while preserving speed, and speed shifting while preserving pitch, were new and all the rage. The first example that I always think of is Fatboy Slim’s track with “check it out now, the funk soul brother” at the end. Past a certain amount of slowing down you can actually hear the gaps between the tiny snippets of audio.

[@ASLUHLUHCE]

Nice

[@NotJustBikes]

OK, that concept of squeezed light using entangled photons at the LIGO is officially the coolest thing I've heard in a long time. Damn that's clever. I swear the best part of all the quantum physics I studied at University is that I have the ability to actually understand what this channel is talking about. 😂

[@varunramanathan8346]

Hey, I just watched your video about North American housing, really cool stuff!

[@waynethomas1726]

As always, thanks for the vid. To be honest most of your material flies over my head but I grasp just enough of it to understand in a very general and limited way. This one I actually understood a little better than some others. Thanks again!

[@EyesOfByes]

Dating is like quantum physics, nothing is ever certain. Until you ask, and then it all collapses every time

[@CSSuser]

Nice one!

[@EyesOfByes]

@Max Apogee u up?

[@leiftinwell7273]

In defiance of Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle, Chuck Norris can know a particle’s position and velocity at the same time. This is because particles stand where Chuck tells them to, and stay there until he tells them to leave…..if they know what’s good for them.

[@baomao7243]

On avg, yes, but individually they arrive at slightly different times… 😬🤔

[@NewMessage]

And that's why we all know where Space Time will upload... but never exactly when.

[@YellowPenetrator]

And if you would only subscribe to spacetime, the likelihood of watching another video at the time spacetime releases would come down, but also the likelihood of being on KZbin while they upload would come down at the same time XD

[@lukefuller284]

Now I'm waiting to see a SmarterEveryDay video where Destin is standing in a lab with another guy and asks him, "Wait, so you're telling me that this clock right here, and that clock right there, are holding each other's quantum-entangled atoms?" and the guy casually tells him "Yep, that's right."

[@duif4b]

8:48 This is actually the principle of balanced (symmetric) signal transmission, aka common mode rejection, as used in any CAT or microphone cable with paired wires. Engineers to the rescue (and thanks for acknowledging them, Matt!!)

[@royschreiber1]

I thought you’re going to speak about weak measurements. You should definitely do an episode about that, it’s a really interesting development. And if we’re already with Yakir Aharonov, an even more fascinating idea for an episode is the two-state vector formalism, that truly is mind breaking and I’ve had the honor of hearing a lecture about it from and speaking with Avshalom Elitzur.

[@davidhand9721]

Link? Sounds interesting

[@twisterwiper]

I'm learning things from this channel I would have had no idea of otherwise. Love it. The principles behind LIGO are really fascinating. Entangled phases - brilliant!

[@erfanabedi3592]

My God this was an awesome episode! Thanks guys!!

[@sbvera13]

Hey, new episode, and just in time for lunch too. I should start calling the show "PBS Lunch Time"

[@sbvera13]

@authorization batman Yeah, being disabled is great. It's all fun and games with no downsides at all!

[@7Alberto7]

Humans are awesome and scary for the same reason...we never stop

[@sanders555]

Neither does the universe.

[@uninspired3583]

Some of us work on squeezing the uncertainty principle, and others get violent over imaginary deities and arbitrary map lines. We truly are strange apes.

[@YellowPenetrator]

@@uninspired3583 map lines?

[@uninspired3583]

@@YellowPenetrator borders. Countries fight over borders.

[@jasonr9157]

we are galactic roaches, soon we will be off planet and devouring the rest of the solar system

[@UnyPhi]

Instantly hitting like anytime they upload

[@amadiohfixed1300]

Touche

[@w0tch]

They hit at every now and where of the spacetime

[@Harkmagic]

I just wish that more people would communicate that the Uncertainty Principle isn't some mystical quantum phenomenon, but is in reality just a natural consequence of working with waves. Simply communicating to people that it just one of the limitations of the mathematics of waves would dispel so much confusion people have about quantum physics.

[@IshaaqNewton]

Now this is some real stuffs to get into...😁

[@marcossidoruk8033]

Lmao your username and pfp.

[@claytonharting9899]

“Scientists aren’t going to let something like mere fundamental laws of the universe stop them” I love people

[@pawankhanal8472]

" say my name " "Uncertainty principal " " You're goddamn right "

[@KohuGaly]

This isn't breaking the HUP. It's just using it in the intended way.

[@Jehannum2000]

My thoughts exactly. More clickbait.

[@bryanreed742]

Yeah, the rule it's breaking is not the uncertainty principle at all. It's an obscure relationship that normally applies to laser light, and which only specialists have ever worked with or even heard of. Trading off one uncertainty for another is routine in photography, e.g. when you change aperture sizes.

[@KohuGaly]

@@bryanreed742 Similar tradeoffs happen in music too. An in pretty much any application that involves both timing and frequency.

[@marmelade5118]

@@KohuGalyAt least for everything with frequency vs. time, it is given purely by the mathematics. However, we can also 'break' that uncertainty with additional preknown constraints of our system in some cases, like registering the general signature of something in the spectrum and then detecting fast changes of it in a lower resolution spectrum...

[@RobinDSaunders]

Just watched this - there were 1300 comments, I scrolled through and maybe 1/10 of them were about the clickbait title. Chances that they'll stop doing this? Probably less than 1/10 :(

[@0cgw]

Rather than "Breaking the Heisenberg Uncertainty Relation", what you have described is 100% "Obeying the Heisenberg Relation". I like to think of the Uncertainty relation as a mathematical theorem derived from the Dirac quantization condition. It would have been shocking if the uncertainty relation had been broken as then the piece of mathematics (or the Dirac quantization condition) would have been wrong, and so much of our understanding of quantum mechanics rests on the Dirac quantization condition.

[@dantetriana148]

The multiplex advantage is also a good tool for dealing with noise. One pair of lasers may contain random noise but 1000 pairs average out this noise as the noise is sometimes up (extra photons) and sometimes down , adding those values and dividing by the number of beams yields a signal with far less noise, as long as the signal are in the same time domain. Medical NMR's use this process.

[@surikatga]

There is no uncertainty when comes to clicking in newest Space Time episode. I'm pretty sure time of this interaction is not quantized and approximates to 1/∞

[@solidaritytime3650]

Bruh, just collapse and get on with it.

[@Trohuz]

This just makes me think of that DS9 episode with the group of genetically enhanced humans; when O'Brien told Bashir, he can't break the fundamental laws of physics, they solve the issue and respond in unison: "But you can bend them!"

[@kaitlyn__L]

You could clip the wings off of an angel, dancing on the head of a pin.

[@omsingharjit]

8:26 " squeezed light " now i remembered this word which i had learned long time before by ligo scientist on YT

[@omsingharjit]

This was the video kzbin.info/www/bejne/f2Gnn3-hhsudetE

[@dixitkumar9050]

Summary: ∆N.∆phi > h/4π ------- Number phase relationship. N describe number(fock) states which have ∆N fixed and almost zero but this uncertainty is increased manually giving out squeezed states. Splitting of laser beam through NL crystal (second order non linearity like KDP)------- parametric downconversion (a type of second harmonic generation).

[@DudeWhoSaysDeez]

If a "signal" came into LIGO at a perfect 45 degree angle between the two laser paths, could the stretching of spacetime be equal on both sides, thereby causing no disturbance?

[@MorbidEel]

that might be one of the reasons why there are two sites

[@aniksamiurrahman6365]

Yes. That's a reason why there are two detectors in the US and another one in Europe.

[@vincentpelletier57]

There are two sites to make sure that what is detected at one is also detected at the other, and thus it is real signal (and not some kind of localized earthquake, trucks driving on roads, etc.) Having even more sites, that helps a lot with the sensitivity of all orientations. Also, you can use the difference in the time of the signal to help figure out the orientation (if the waves hit the European detector first, then the source is somewhere in that half of the sky).

[@chrissekely]

8:50 reminds me a bit of how a balanced XLR audio cable works.

[@ChrisSanders7]

I had the same thought.

[@TheMorganMonroeShow]

Only if you do it completely sideways. There’s so much different and yet could be viewed in the same methods. Just so different. Indeed

[@kaitlyn__L]

I had the same thought, plus twisted-pair telephone and ethernet cables.

[@donkmeister]

"Breaking the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle" obviously gets more clicks than "Totally 100% obeying the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle"... The whole concept of squeezed light is precisely BECAUSE you cannot break the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle.

[@davidhand9721]

Exactly what I was thinking.

[@RenatoMelloSF]

Thank you

[@mikep3142]

Agreed

[@MarsStarcruiser]

Seeing this video way late and was about to say the same thing till I saw your comment. Thanks🧐👍

[@theOtherNism]

So, how is this breaking the uncertainty principle? Unless I’m missing something, it still holds: you can decrease uncertainty about phase to an insane degree, but at the cost of increasing uncertainty about amplitude. That is exactly what the uncertainty principle says, isn’t it? It is super impressive that scientists can measure things with such precision that Heisenbergs uncertainty principle even becomes relevant, but to suggest that they break that fundamental principle just seems wrong to me. Again, unless I'm missing something.

[@patrickbryant_]

You are correct, it is a bad title for a cool subject.

[@RenatoMelloSF]

You're not missing anything

[@factsheet4930]

10:32 I think it should have said: "we were *unable* to film his position while shooting comments." Just me?

[@Trias805]

5:40 When laser beams "destructively interfere", what happens to the energy they carry? Or maybe I should say: what happens to their photons? They don't just disappear, do they?

[@ristogajic9166]

The photons simply don’t have any probability of being detected near that point. You are making it sound like there was a photon near that point and then it was inexplicably destroyed by the interference process. But instead, the truth is that when photons interfere with each other, the number of photons is still the same; the probabilities of finding the photons in particular regions of space simply change.

[@cahdoge]

Since the photon is it's own anti particle they in fact do disappear. No photons means, no energy transfered/interaction, no problem. Thta's the baseline. Since you asked where the energy in this experimetn goes. An interferometer, in fact, produces two beams as output, one destructive interfering and one constructive interfering (the second one is being discarded), so the neregy you detect is split off, from the second beam.

[@Trias805]

@@cahdoge Is that always the case? What if we didn't use an interferometer, but instead just sent two perfectly synchronized laser beams that would cancel each other out?

[@garethdean6382]

@@Trias805 There's a difference between the energy and its effect. The first involves the energy in the electromagnetic field at a point and the second invovles the net magnitude of the field. With constructive interference this is a simple relationship, two photons add to give double the magnitude and thus double the effect. With destructive interference the energy is still there, but inacessible. If there's enough you can get pair production, the opposite of matter-antimatter annihilation, but otherwise the EM waves are still there. Most likely the energy will travel until it reaches the source of its counterpart at which point it won't be cancelled out anymore and can interact.

[@pipolwes000]

It just struck me that the pairs of variables most often used for the Uncertainty Principle (x vs p, or E vs t) are "Noether pairs". Conservation of momentum (from what I remember) comes from the symmetry of translations in position, and conservation of energy comes from symmetry of translations in time. Surely this isn't a coincidence, right?

[@quillaja]

they might have done a video about that: kzbin.info/www/bejne/ZmWog4aYZZuXhck

[@agimasoschandir]

@@hyperduality2838 Descartes was wrong - at least, in describing an external soul. If he wants to equate thought with an internal one, I can deal with that

[@EMAngel2718]

I feel that this is less breaking the heisenberg uncertainty principle and more just finding a way around it, which is a great accomplishment in itself, but not quite breaking one of our fundamental understandings of the unvierse

[@majormelon8855]

I love being an engineer and giving physicists new toys 😂

[@nullbeyondo]

Literally my reaction :D

[@ericalbers4867]

I always looked the very subtle, and definitely meant for nerds, additions in Star Trek. The transporter had a parallel computer in it called the Heisenberg Compensator. Something only certain people would've caught and enjoyed.

[@renderproductions1032]

That joke at the end was perfect! Hehehehehe (Edit: You guys made a spelling mistake in the outro joke.)

[@Ni999]

Good catch! Should have been _unable to film his position._

[@kirksneckchop7873]

The grammar was precise so the spelling was uncertain.

[@mike74h]

This might be the result of using a squeezed alphabet technique but I'm not certain.

[@happyfrybreadbushcraftands8637]

I can't resist this classic here. Education is one's progression from cocksure ignorance to thoughtful Uncertainty!

[@davidebel6771]

Get your Freshly Squeezed Light right here folks, now with 50% more gravitational wave events!

[@theklaus7436]

A brilliant Way solutions to get around these issues. Amazing

[@penart8079]

"we were able to film his position"? Typo in the end😂 I think you meant the opposite

[@rebeccatripp36]

I realized that I found this episode somewhat more intuitive/easier to understand than the average upload. This is in part because it deals with concepts already familiar to me as a musician who regularly works with sound editing software. I would love to see some episodes explaining some of these concepts through the lens of sound, going into finer detail about waves, frequencies, vibrations, distortions, etc.

[@kaitlyn__L]

Professor Moriarty has made a few videos like that where he talked quantum physics while playing one of his guitars. I highly recommend seeking them out!

[@Ozzy_2014]

Old producers joke about the transporters on TNG when asked about the Heisenberg compensators, " How do they work?" " Very well, thank you.". 😉😆

[@chrismanson3211]

Yes, I commented on that too!

[@jonathanhughes8679]

This is why things have to be looked at from all angles and then put together all the information and form an idea.

[@OtherWorldExplorers]

Yeah the heck with the Hindenburg principal I may have had added to much Rum to my pina colada...

[@definesigint2823]

The "have had added" made me laugh / remember "Time Traveler's Grammar" from *The Restaurant At The End of The Universe:* ref: www.goodreads.com/quotes/369785-one-of-the-major-problems-encountered-in-time-travel-is I hope you're amused by it / have another touch of rum for me 😊

[@YellowPenetrator]

But which certainty gets higher, when the certainty about blood alcohol content gets lower? XD Just kidding.

[@kaitlyn__L]

@@definesigint2823 oh that always gets me so good. The linguistic jokes as well as the “broad minded family” and, god he was so good

[@henrymonroy9533]

I find it humorous that I keep watching this channel , KNOWING, most of it is over my head! XD

[@Alec0124]

"mere fundamental laws of physics" lol xD

[@nullbeyondo]

Laws can always be broken down to other variables which aren't discovered yet giving us more mathematical power over the universe.

[@klauskervin2586]

I love PBS Spacetime. I love PBS Spacetime.

[@harry_page]

4:40 Is the interpretation of the weak interaction as a W boson borrowing a huge amount of energy from the vacuum and existing for only a very short time an example of a natural instance of one variable being very certain and the other very uncertain?

[@garethdean6382]

Yes, though it's more like an interpretation of a natural phenomena through the lens of uncertainty. Other interpretations don't rely on that principle.

[@elir7184]

Squeezed light, Uncertainty principle interfering with gravity wave detection. Beautiful

[@chandorraa9443]

With absolutely no science training since high school, this is how every Space Time video goes for me. First half of video: OK I'm keeping up, I must be smarter than I thought! Second half of video: Derpy derpy, space stuff and things....ha smart man said "Space Time".

[@PhillipAlcock]

“Engineers have gifted physicists….” At last - someone who understands the difference and credits the incredible engineering!

[@talhaiqbal]

"I'm not in uncertainty. I'm the uncertainty." -Walter Heisenberg

[@thejason5276]

This reminded me of my junior year of college. Loved it then and I love it now. Also liked the comment at the end about Matt's position.

[@cryptofutur1048]

Thanksforyour feedbackForguidances on cryptocurrency ✓ W•h•a•t•s•A•p•p >+1>

[@jimmyriba]

Am I missing something, or is the title misleading and click-baity, and should more rightly be called "Using the uncertainty principle to push measurement accuracy to the limit"? There's no breaking of the uncertainty principle (as there shouldn't be), only tuning the uncertainty in the individual factors that make up the product? Totally within both the equation and even the layman understanding of it. Light squeezing is still really cool, but it's hugely important that science communication isn't misleading, even if it helps grab people's attention or makes the story seem more exciting.

[@TheIllerX]

The title immediately made me think of the "Heisenberg compensator" from Star Trek :D.

[@ismailbarakat3868]

This is wrong. The Heisenberg uncertinity limit is still preserved, there is no overcoming of such limit even with squeezed states used ! It is a wierd mistake from this very good channel.

[@Create-The-Imaginable]

He said it was more of a hack than actually breaking the limit! I think is was just a colorful play on words!

[@ismailbarakat3868]

@@Create-The-Imaginable still, the title is misleading, rathar than just colorful different one.

[@Create-The-Imaginable]

@@ismailbarakat3868 I still think it is Marketing 101! But on a Scientific note... How can you "break" something that is uncertain? 😉 Marketing is sometimes good kind of like calling the Higgs Boson the "God Particle". lol

[@reynaldorosas6373]

Thank you for your recognition of the contribution of engineers: that is quite uncommon from physicists.

[@AustinWigley]

Do you have a cold? I hope you get better!

[@hearmeout9138]

The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle should be thought of as playing with Schrodinger's cat with a laser pointer.

[@SolaceEasy]

Doesn't seem broken to me.

[@arbalest85]

3:59 You: 'Is this a feature or is this a bug?' Universe: 'Yes.'

[@nHans]

I'm all for a *sensational click-bait* title if it helps attract viewers and teaches them something new. Unfortunately, Matt never clarified that LIGO did not break the HUP. That was a disservice to science. Many viewers are now going around believing that the HUP has been broken. My physics students are inevitably going to start forwarding this video to me. It's hard enough fighting pseudo-science. Now legitimate science shows are putting out misleading videos. 🙄

[@stefanfyhn4668]

I hope your students can tell the difference about a promise about breaking it vs talking about the act of breaking it (and why its impossible)

[@ristopaasivirta9770]

Oh god, I can already see the Spiffing Brit's video coming up... "The Universe Is A Perfectly Balanced System With No Exploits"

[@AI7KTD]

I might be pedantic, but this ISN'T breaking Heisenberg's principle at all!

[@jitteryjet7525]

Correct. It is a clickbait video title.

[@skewlkid521]

The title and some of the language in this video are misleading. The HUP is still perfectly obeyed by the squeezed light, the uncertainties are just distributed differently than usual. I'm a big fan of this channel's commitment to accuracy, so this surprised me.

[@xjuhox]

Wrong title in this video.

[@MrGovmentCheez]

To quote the bad guy from that Laura Croft movie "my ignorance amuses me" and that's why I watch

[@sogerc1]

I don't appreciate clickbait titles. No law is actually broken or bent with squeezed light.

[@cosmikrelic4815]

that's right. i'm used to pseudo-science channels doing this sort of thing but i think it is bad form to do it on a supposedly science channel.

[@frun]

Probably could be done by an observer of a different class, though

[@cosmikrelic4815]

@@frun what does that mean? if you are rich you get a different perspective?

[@KeithRowley418]

Wonderfully clear and simple explanation. thank you.

[@margaretneanover3385]

Awesome study. So getting Orion's belt back to earth is possible. Wow who knew? It's possible complimentary task.

[@Ahlex]

I always watch your videos. I come here knowing absolutely nothing about the subject and I leave knowing nothing as well. But I watch them anyways trying to see on your body language if what you're talking is good or bad haha

[@robertschlesinger1342]

Very interesting, informative and worthwhile video.

[@thzzzt]

I ran into something similar to the Heisenberg Principle when shopping for business suits in my thirties. There was a men's clothing store on 5th Ave in NYC called Eisenberg & Eisenberg. Only half of the suits I came across there had price tags. When I found a suit I liked, invariably, it had no price tag. When I found a suit with a price tag and price I could afford, I wasn't really sure that I liked it. Thus, I discovered the Eisenberg Principle of Uncertainty. I was completely ignored by the Nobel committee.

[@cryptofutur1048]

Thanksforyour feedbackForguidances on cryptocurrency ✓ W•h•a•t•s•A•p•p >+1>

[@Cinsightfully]

Heisenberg's interpretation is interesting because the challenge is recursive. You can try to approximate the momentum change the 'observing' photon has on the particle by measuring the energy of the photon, but doing so induces its own uncertainty, rinse and repeat. Maybe the loop can be closed, but it would be difficult to include an entire scientist in that measurement loop. Moreover, the perfect certainty within the loop isn't useful because any external disturbance (like our scientist leaving for lunch) would carry its uncertainty into the experiment.

[@omsingharjit]

6:16 that same question came in my mind just instant before you said ...

[@_John_P]

(00:19) Many thanks, every job is important. Praise to the builders and technicians that we work close together with, which come from all walks of life but end up with minimal education and no hope of understanding what these damn scientists are up to now, but without their blind support and dedication, none of this would have been possible, ever.

[@anderskallberg7969]

A bit unrelated to the video but I want to propose an idea on how to measure what we can't see (perhaps dark matter): Assumption: The total momentum of the observable universe is zero in some reference-frame (I would guess the CMBR-Frame). Idea: If one measures/estimates the momentum of all matter in the observable universe in that frame, it should add up to zero - if it doesn't, it may reveal something about what we couldn't measure (dark matter, interstellar gas, etc.) There may be some flaws in the reasoning, but I've never heard of anything like it and don't know if such an experiment could bring useful information.