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Articles

Vol. 69 No. 1 (2012)

Principles of scientific method: Notes on Lectures by Dr K.R. Popper given at the University of Otago, 22–26 May 1945; Lecture 6. Principle of indeterminacy

  • K. R. Popper
DOI
https://doi.org/10.26686/nzsr.v69.8810
Submitted
December 7, 2023
Published
2023-12-07

Abstract

​The question of indeterminacy is the most sensational [sic] in quantum theory. It really is one of the adventures of the mind.

Werner Heisenberg found that deductively his equations led to a formula: that the consequence of lack of precise prediction leads to a statistical character, and that this statistical character is what is ultimately needed to explain the eigen-states of the atom. Erwin Schrödinger showed this with wave mechanics. Heisenberg said that as a consequence there are very few causal laws for atoms, which is, he said, a refutation of the principle of causality.

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