Re: Heisenberg and measurement intrusion....

In a word No. The uncertainty principle applies to precise measurement of subaotmic scale objects, and specifies the limits of precision. It's possible, though equally invalid, that the participant was thinking of the observer effect in quantum physics - where the act of observing determines the outcome. Schrodinger's famous cat can be thought of as an attempt to illustrate the perils of extending that to the macro
world - though I know that wasn't the original intent.

Of course if the participant were actually correct you might as well give up the project now since there is no point in measuring performance either before or after and you cannot possibly make any discernible difference to the system no matter what you do.

On 7/31/07, Ted Coyle <oracle-l_at_webthere.com> wrote:
> I'm on an Oracle performance project and a project participant made a
> statement regarding measurement intrusion.
>
> Is the statement below accurate?
> "So the Heisenberg uncertainty principle mandates we run without monitoring
> as a baseline."
>
> I responded with a wikipedia link which I'll send later, but I'd like to get
> opinions first. :)
>
> Regards,
> Ted
>
> --
> http://www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l
>
>
>

-- 
Niall Litchfield
Oracle DBA
http://www.orawin.info
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