Skill: Developing Models

The students will investigate the relationship between uncertainty in momentum and the uncertainty in position and how these relate to Heisenberg's uncertainty principle.

This activity is based on the data analysis used for World Wide Data Day,

This activity provides techniques for guiding students doing an independent research project.

Students discover the rules of particle transformations using transformation diagrams.

Students analyze tracks in a bubble chamber.

Students analyze tracks in a cloud chamber.

Students examine data to find how energy, momentum, and mass are related.

Students construct histograms, identify the best value to represent the data, and report the uncertainty in their answers. 

Heisenberg knew that, at the quantum level, we cannot know everything, at least not all at once. Students explore uncertainties in measurements of complimentary variables to find this out for themselves.

Students collect data from muons which decay in the MINERvA detector in the Fermilab NuMi beamline to understand particle decay and determine the muon lifetime.