Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jan 8, 2026

An Analog Macroscopic Technique for Studying Molecular Hydrodynamic Processes in Dense Gases and Liquids
Published on: December 4, 2017
Position-momenta uncertainties in classical systems
1Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Kolkata, Department of Physical Sciences, Mohanpur 741246, India.
None:
We design a thermal bath that preserves the conservation of a system's angular momentum or allows it to fluctuate around a specified nonzero mean while maintaining a Boltzmann distribution of energy in the steady state. We demonstrate that classical particles immersed in such baths exhibit position-momentum uncertainties with a strictly positive lower bound proportional to the absolute value of the mean angular momentum. The proportionality constant, c, is dimensionless and does not depend explicitly on the system's parameters. Remarkably, while c is universally bounded by unity, it attains the exact value c=1/2 for particles in central potentials.
Related Concept Videos
Principle of Linear Impulse and Momentum for a System of Particles
Notably, internal forces between particles, occurring in equal and opposite collinear pairs, cancel out and are not part of the equation of motion. This exclusion simplifies the...
Conservation of Momentum: Introduction
Conservation of Linear Momentum for a System of Particles
The impulsive force at play during this interaction is of extremely short duration, rendering its impulse negligible. When...
Angular Momentum about an Arbitrary Axis
The velocity of a mass element comprises its translational velocity and the relative velocity instigated by the body's rotation. Substituting the velocity equation into...
Principle of Angular Impulse and Momentum: Problem Solving
Initially, a free-body diagram of the system is drawn to illustrate all the forces acting upon the system, providing a crucial understanding of the dynamics at play. Then, the principle of angular impulse and momentum is...
Angular Momentum: Single Particle

