Uncertainty

The Heisenberg uncertainty principle asserts that the position and momentum of a particle cannot be known at the same time. At this heart of this principle is the “wave-particle” duality complex that shows us that light can behave like both a particle and a wave. There is something in the nature of this not knowing, not being able to know the true nature of light, that offers a bit of clarity to the uncertainty principle. Or at least, wave-particle duality helps me see that grasping for the nature of a thing requires a soft gaze that allows for multiple, seemingly conflicting evidence to be true at once.

To try to wrap my head about the uncertainty principle more deeply, I think back to playing rugby when my dad used to love taking photos of my games. As a person on the sideline, he could perceive the position of the ball and would attempt to freeze the ball in place by snapping a photo. But if he wanted to try to capture the momentum - a measure of mass and velocity - his best chance would be to take a video.