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Pinning Down Uncertainty

Cynthia Flores describes how Heisenberg’s famous principle has shaped her mathematical career and worldview

This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American


On this episode of our podcast My Favorite Theorem, my cohost Kevin Knudson and I had the pleasure of talking with Cynthia Flores, a mathematician at California State University Channel Islands. You can listen to the episode here or at kpknudson.com, where there is also a transcript.

Mathematician Cynthia Flores. Credit:
California State UniversityChannel Islands


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I met Dr. Flores when she was a guest on the Lathisms podcast, where I interview Hispanic and Latinx mathematicians. You can listen to her talk about her upbringing in Los Angeles and the professor who made her realize she could become a mathematician here and find the rest of the Lathisms podcasts here.

Dr. Flores studies mathematical physics, partial differential equations, and harmonic analysis, so it is fitting that the theorem she chose to share on the podcast has a physics flavor. Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle, known by mathematicians as Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Inequality or Inequalities, is best known as the statement that it is impossible to measure both the position and velocity of a particle at a given point in time with perfect accuracy. But the same theorem takes different forms in different mathematical contexts.

Learning about Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Inequality was a turning point in Dr. Flores’s mathematical career. She had entered graduate school interested in geometry and topology, but when she encountered this theorem in a class by her soon-to-be-advisor, she switched gears and decided to go into mathematical physics. Learning this theorem was a turning point for her personal philosophy as well. I love it when our guests wax philosophical about how they experience their theorems in everyday life. Dr. Flores says that since learning Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Inequality, she has, lived with a mantra that the more precisely you try to plan out your life, the more chaos can sneak in to disrupt those plans.

In each episode of the podcast, we invite our guest to pair their theorem with food, beverage, art, music, or other delight in life. Dr. Flores chose an episode of science fiction cartoon Rick and Morty. You’ll have to listen to the podcast to learn which episode of Rick and Morty will most enhance your experience of Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Inequality and why.

To learn more about the Heisenberg Uncertainty Inequality, Dr. Flores suggests Nonlinear Dispersive Equations by Felipe Linares and Gustavo Ponce, especially exercise 3.14, and this video from the Veritasium YouTube channel that demonstrates the uncertainty principle.

To learn more about Dr. Flores, find her at her website and on Twitter. She was recently chosen as one of 2019's 15 emerging scholars by Diverse: Issues in Higher Education. Read her profile here

You can find more information about the mathematicians and theorems featured in this podcast, along with other delightful mathematical treats, at kpknudson.com and here at Roots of Unity. A transcript is available here. You can subscribe to and review the podcast on iTunes and other podcast delivery systems. We love to hear from our listeners, so please drop us a line at myfavoritetheorem@gmail.com. Kevin Knudson’s handle on Twitter is @niveknosdunk, and mine is @evelynjlamb. The show itself also has a Twitter feed: @myfavethm and a Facebook page. Join us next time to learn another fascinating piece of mathematics.

Previously on My Favorite Theorem:

Episode 0: Your hosts' favorite theorems Episode 1: Amie Wilkinson’s favorite theorem Episode 2: Dave Richeson's favorite theorem Episode 3: Emille Davie Lawrence's favorite theorem Episode 4: Jordan Ellenberg's favorite theorem Episode 5: Dusa McDuff's favorite theorem Episode 6: Eriko Hironaka's favorite theorem Episode 7: Henry Fowler's favorite theorem Episode 8: Justin Curry's favorite theorem Episode 9: Ami Radunskaya's favorite theorem Episode 10: Mohamed Omar's favorite theorem Episode 11: Jeanne Clelland's favorite theorem Episode 12: Candice Price's favorite theorem Episode 13: Patrick Honner's favorite theorem Episode 14: Laura Taalman's favorite theorem Episode 15: Federico Ardila's favorite theorem Episode 16: Jayadev Athreya's favorite theorem Episode 17: Nalini Joshi's favorite theorem Episode 18: John Urschel's favorite theorem Episode 19: Emily Riehl's favorite theorem Episode 20: Francis Su's favorite theorem Episode 21: Jana Rordiguez Hertz's favorite theorem Episode 22: Ken Ribet's favorite theorem Episode 23: Ingrid Daubechies's favorite theorem Episode 24: Vidit Nanda's favorite theorem Episode 25: Holly Krieger's favorite theorem Episode 26: Erika Camacho's favorite theorem Episode 27: James Tanton's favorite theorem Episode 28: Chawne Kimber's favorite theorem Episode 29: Mike Lawler's favorite theorem Episode 30: Katie Steckles' favorite theorem Episode 31: Yen Duong's favorite theorem Episode 32: Anil Venkatesh's favorite theorem Episode 33: Michèle Audin's favorite theorem Episode 34: Skip Garibaldi's favorite theorem Episode 35: Nira Chamberlain's favorite theorem Episode 36: Nikita Nikolaev and Beatriz Navarro Lameda's favorite theorem