- #1
Waveparticle
- 28
- 0
Im currently reading Entanglement by Amir D. Aczel. It explains the arguments for and against quantum theory at the Solvay Conference in 1930. At the conference Einstein told Bohr that he could refute the uncertainty principle for energy and time. Einstein said he designed a box with an opening in one of its walls, where a door is placed, controlled by a clock inside the box. The box is filled with radiation and weighed. The door is opened for a split second, allowing one photon to escape. The box is weighed again, from the weight difference, one can deduce the energy of the photon and thus can determine the photons energy and the time of its passage(refuting the uncertainty principle). The way Bohr found a flaw was to say that Einstein failed to account for the fact that weighing the box amounts to observing its displacement within the gravitational field. The imprecision in the displacement of the box generates an uncertainty in the determination of the mass-and hence the energy-of the photon. When the box is displaced, so is the clock inside it. It now ticks in a gravitational field that is slightly different from before. Can someone please help me understand Bohrs answer because I am having a hard time understanding why Einsteins contraption couldn't work? Why is the box displaced when you weigh it the second time?