Abstract
THE word 'Complementarity' was originally introduced lag Niels Bohr to express one of the most fundamental ideas in quantum theory, that we can not simultaneously measure both the position of a and veloeity of a particle—the more we know about one the less we can know about the other. It is in this sense that we speak of our knowledge of the two quantities as complementary. But the idea is capable of wide generalization, since position and velocity (or momentum) are not the only pairs of 'conjugate observables'. Indeed, it is no exaggeration to say that a proper understanding of this principle is the greatest single contribution of modern physics to philosophy. The editorial board of Dialectica, a quarterly journal devoted to a review of the philosophy of knowledge, has done a public service by assigning the whole of the current issue (vol. 2, No. 3-4, published in Neuchâtel, priced 4.80 Swiss francs and obtainable from H. K. Lewis, 136 Gower Street, London, W.C.I) to a study of the single topic of complementarity.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Significance of Complementarity in Physics : Dialectica. Nature 163, 435 (1949). https://doi.org/10.1038/163435c0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/163435c0