# Sommerfeld uncertainty principle

1. Oct 19, 2013

### arivero

Ok, I knew that Heisenberg had studied under Arnold Sommerfeld, but I have just now learnt that Sommerfeld proposed a sort of uncertainty principle in the first Solvay meeting.

That was 1911.

It seems that he proposed that the time needed to transfer a quantity of energy was inversely proportional to this quantity, and perhaps that the space needed to transfer some momentum was inversely proportional to this momentum. IE:

$$\Delta t = { h \over \Delta E}$$

and perhaps

$$\Delta x = { h \over \Delta p}$$

I wonder if there was some extension of this idea before coming to Heisenberg himself (and his principle). After all, from 1911 to 1927 there is some time lag. Also, I wonder how compatible is this idea with the later developed Quantum Mechanics.

Is there some book naming explicitly this formulation?

2. Oct 19, 2013

### arivero

Let me add, suppose that for instance some Banking System imposes a "corralito" following the above rule, that the transfer of a quantity $of money must be delayed always by a time proportional to 1/log($) the inverse of the number of ceros of the quantity to be transferred. Would we get then a "quantum economy"? It seems strange because there is not probability nor measure problem here.