Uncertainty principle debate (Ramin Pichevar )


Subject: Uncertainty principle debate
From:    Ramin Pichevar  <Ramin.Pichevar(at)USHERBROOKE.CA>
Date:    Thu, 15 Apr 2004 21:52:23 -0400
         http://www.usherbrooke.ca/vers/virus-courriel

Hello list, The article by P. Loughlin and L. Cohen entitled "The Uncertainty Principle: Global, Local, or Both" that appeared in the IEEE Trans. on Signal Processing (may 2004, pages 1218-1228) may have answers to the following question. Best regards, Ramin -----Message d'origine----- De : AUDITORY Research in Auditory Perception [mailto:AUDITORY(at)LISTS.MCGILL.CA]De la part de herzfeld Envoye : 30 janvier, 2004 14:37 A : AUDITORY(at)LISTS.MCGILL.CA Objet : Uncertainty principle debate Hello List, The current controversy about the application of the uncertainty principl;e is to me at least interesting and somewhat perplexing in that it is still, seems to me, misunderstood. There are two two methods of defining frequency. One of these is the inverse of the time difference between two points of equal phase in a recurring signal. This definition is NOT limited by the uncertainty principle.[Kneser, H.O. Bermerkungen ueber Definition and Messung der Frequenz. Arch. Elekt. Uebertr. 1948 2 167-169} Bekesy in many of his works (based on experimental data) has stated : Frequency is already determined in 2 cycles of a sinusoidal signal. At a frequency of 500 Hz the estimate that I have is that the aproximate DL = 1 Hz. Now two cycles of 500 Hz is 4 mS. The product of delta t and delta f is 0.004. Very obviously less than 1/2 which (the 1/2) as I recall was first derived by Gabor [ Gabor, D. Theory of communication. J. Instn. Elect. Engrs. 1946 93(3) 429-457] See also [Licklider J.C.R. "Basic correlates of the auditory sto,i;is" in S.S. Stevens (ed) Handbook of experimental psychology pp 985-1013 1951 Wiley, New York] Licklider (one of my teachers) compares this to Heisenberg's uncertainty principle. Based on this type of data the determination of frequency by at least humans and perhaps other vertebrates must be based on time differences. Fred -- Fred Herzfeld, MIT'54 78 Glynn Marsh Drive #59 Brunswick, Ga. 31525-0504 USA Tel: (912) 262-1276 Fax: (912) 262-1276 by request *********************************** Ramin Pichevar, Ph.D. student Dept. of Electrical & Computer Eng. Université de Sherbrooke 2500 boul. de l'université SHERBROOKE, Québec, CANADA, J1K 2R1 tel: (819)821-8000 ext. 2187 fax: (819)821-7937 http://www-edu.gel.usherbrooke.ca/pichevar/ email: Ramin.Pichevar(at)usherbrooke.ca *********************************** "La théorie, c'est quand on sait tout et que rien ne fonctionne. La pratique, c'est quand tout fonctionne et que personne ne sait pourquoi. Ici, nous avons réunit théorie et pratique : Rien ne fonctionne... et personne ne sait pourquoi !" Albert Einstein


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