1. Dec 7, 2005

### werner heisenberg

I was just thinking about what does every one of the terms in heisenberg's matrices stands for so I decied to post a new thread in physicsforums since I am sure I will obtain an answer before long. Thanks an try to explain it in plain languaje (if possible) because I am not an expert

2. Dec 12, 2005

### werner heisenberg

Well I see it is not an easy question to answer... Thanks anyway.

3. Dec 12, 2005

### Galileo

I'm not sure if this is what you're asking, but..
The diagonal elements of some matrix A corresponding to an observable in some orthormal basis: $A_{ii}=\langle \varphi_i|A|\varphi_i \rangle$ resemble expectation values. It is the expectation value $\langle A \rangle$ of A for a system in the state $|\varphi_i \rangle$. I don't know of any physical interpretation of the non-diagonal elements.

4. Dec 12, 2005

### inha

uh.. shouldn't you know this stuff pretty well Werner?

5. Dec 16, 2005

### werner heisenberg

Yep I should but you see... At first Werner seems rather easy and amazing with its uncertainty principle but when reading its life (David Cassidy Uncertainty, the life and science of werner heisenberg) you realize this is not true, he published a great deal of papers on a great deal of fields and he is often impossible to understand