"Weighing" a closed system and the time-energy uncertainty principle
A gedanken experiment is proposed for "weighing" the total mass of a closed system from within the system. We prove that for an internal observer the time tau, required to measure the total energy with accuracy DeltaE, is bounded according to tauDeltaE>Planck's over 2pi. This time-energy uncertainty principle for a closed system follows from the measurement backreaction on the system. We generally examine what other conserved observables are in principle measurable within a closed system and what are the corresponding uncertainty relations.
Aharonov
Y
School of Physics and Astronomy, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel and Department of Physics, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina 29208, USA.
Reznik
B