Why can't you know the position and the speed of an atom simultaneously?

[Wictorian]

I know I should google this but I couldn't find the real reason. I thought it was because of technical difficulties, but is it really the case? 

[Chris Pratt]

Simply, because the act of measuring it is enough to change it. The actual answer is far more complicated, but that's the gist.

 

It's also not about an atom. This applies to subatomic particles. We can very much know the speed and position of an atom.

[TetraSky]

Position : In a motherboard socket, likely inside a laptop.
Speed : Low tier garbage that no one should ever use.

 

(we're a tech forum here and OP never specified which "atom" they were talking about )

[Wictorian]

1 hour ago, TetraSky said:

Position : In a motherboard socket, likely inside a laptop.
Speed : Low tier garbage that no one should ever use.

 

(we're a tech forum here and OP never specified which "atom" they were talking about )

And this is Off-Topic which is supposed to only include non-tech related content

[LAwLz]

Quote

Why can't you know the position and the speed of an atom simultaneously?

I think you mean "electrons" and not "atoms".

 

Also, we can know the position and speed of an electron at the same time. It's just that the more accurate measurement we do for speed or position, the less accurate the other measurement becomes. 

The more accurately we try and measure the speed of an electron, the less accurate the position measurement becomes, because of Heisenberg's uncertainty principle.

 

 

[akio123008]

21 hours ago, Wictorian said:

I thought it was because of technical difficulties, but is it really the case? 

No, even with perfect equipment it's physically impossible.

 

If you want to know exactly why, here's a guy who explains it the best (make sure to watch the whole video)