Editing Uncertainty principle (section)

=== Popper's criticism ===
{{Main article|Popper's experiment}}
Science philosopher [[Karl Popper]] approached the problem of indeterminacy as a logician and [[Philosophical realism|metaphysical realist]].<ref name="Popper1959">{{cite book | last1 = Popper | first1 = Karl | author-link1 = Karl Popper | title = The Logic of Scientific Discovery | publisher = Hutchinson & Co. | year = 1959| title-link = The Logic of Scientific Discovery }}</ref> He disagreed with the application of the uncertainty relations to individual particles rather than to [[Quantum ensemble|ensembles]] of identically prepared particles, referring to them as "statistical scatter relations".<ref name="Popper1959" /><ref name="Jarvie2006">{{cite book | last1 = Jarvie | first1 = Ian Charles | last2 = Milford | first2 = Karl | last3 = Miller | first3 = David W. | title = Karl Popper: a centenary assessment | volume = 3 | publisher = Ashgate | year = 2006 | isbn = 978-0-7546-5712-5}}</ref> In this statistical interpretation, a ''particular'' measurement may be made to arbitrary precision without invalidating the quantum theory.

In 1934, Popper published {{lang|de|italic=no|Zur Kritik der Ungenauigkeitsrelationen}} ("Critique of the Uncertainty Relations") in {{lang|de|[[Naturwissenschaften]]}},<ref name="Popper1934">{{cite journal | title = Zur Kritik der Ungenauigkeitsrelationen |language=de |trans-title=Critique of the Uncertainty Relations | journal = Naturwissenschaften | year = 1934 | first = Karl | last = Popper | author2 = Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker | volume = 22 | issue = 48 | pages = 807–808 | doi=10.1007/BF01496543|bibcode = 1934NW.....22..807P | s2cid = 40843068}}</ref> and in the same year {{lang|de|[[The Logic of Scientific Discovery|Logik der Forschung]]}} (translated and updated by the author as ''The Logic of Scientific Discovery'' in 1959<ref name="Popper1959" />), outlining his arguments for the statistical interpretation. In 1982, he further developed his theory in ''Quantum theory and the schism in Physics'', writing:

{{quote|[Heisenberg's] formulae are, beyond all doubt, derivable ''statistical formulae'' of the quantum theory. But they have been ''habitually misinterpreted'' by those quantum theorists who said that these formulae can be interpreted as determining some upper limit to the ''precision of our measurements''. [original emphasis]<ref>{{cite book |last=Popper |first=K. |title=Quantum theory and the schism in Physics |publisher=Unwin Hyman |year=1982 |pages=53–54}}</ref>}}

Popper proposed an experiment to [[Falsifiability|falsify]] the uncertainty relations, although he later withdrew his initial version after discussions with [[Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker]], Heisenberg, and Einstein; Popper sent his paper to Einstein and  it may have influenced the formulation of the EPR paradox.<ref name="Mehra2001">{{cite book | last1 = Mehra | first1 = Jagdish | last2 = Rechenberg | first2 = Helmut | author-link1 = Jagdish Mehra | author-link2 = Helmut Rechenberg | title = The Historical Development of Quantum Theory | publisher = Springer | year = 2001 | isbn = 978-0-387-95086-0 | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/completionofquan0000mehr }}</ref>{{rp|720}}