Conjugate variables are pairs of variables mathematically defined in such a way that they become Fourier transform duals of one another, or more generally are related through Pontryagin duality. The duality relations lead naturally to an uncertainty in physics called the Heisenberg uncertainty principle relation between them. In mathematical terms, conjugate variables are part of a symplectic basis, and the uncertainty principle corresponds to the symplectic form.
Read more about Conjugate Variables: Examples
Famous quotes containing the word variables:
“The variables of quantification, ‘something,’ ‘nothing,’ ‘everything,’ range over our whole ontology, whatever it may be; and we are convicted of a particular ontological presupposition if, and only if, the alleged presuppositum has to be reckoned among the entities over which our variables range in order to render one of our affirmations true.”
—Willard Van Orman Quine (b. 1908)