this post was submitted on 20 Oct 2023
527 points (97.1% liked)

Risa

6928 readers
1 users here now

Star Trek memes and shitposts

Come on'n get your jamaharon on! There are no real rules—just don't break the weather control network.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] xkforce 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

The more precisely momentum is known, the less precisely is its position known and vice versa. As for how temperature affects these measurements, the velocity of atoms and molecules isnt a sharp peak but a probability distribution whose maximum shifts toward higher velocities as the average temperature increases.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

IIUC extremely cold substances turn into so-called Bose-Einstein condensates because their temperature (hence speed) is so tightly controlled that their location becomes more "spread out" in terms of probability. And you can't fix its location without raising the temperature.

[–] xkforce 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Sort of. It has to do with certain matter (they have to be neutral bosons i.e particles with integer spin and no overall charge) being so cold that there arent really any higher energy quantum states for things to be in. So everything is essentially in the same state and functionally indistinguishable. Which is why not everything can form a bose einstein condesate.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

It is a combination, if the particles' positions don't overlap then you don't have a condensate, but at low enough energy and close proximity these particles will overlap