Phys. Rev. Lett. 84, 1368–1370 (2000)“Weighing” a Closed System and the Time-Energy Uncertainty PrincipleReceived 10 June 1999; published in the issue dated 14 February 2000 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 τ, required to measure the total energy with accuracy ΔE, is bounded according to τΔE>ħ. 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. © 2000 The American Physical Society URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.84.1368
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.84.1368
PACS:
03.65.Bz
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