Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'
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Heisenberg's keyring

Helps to find lost keys
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A keyring which contains a concealed drive (electric or clockwork), and a random timing device which triggers the drive to slowly rotate a mass.

The above system means that the momentum of the keyring is unknown (at any moment it may or may not contain a rotating mass).

Therefore, one has a better chance of knowing the location of the keyring.

With thanks to XKCD.

Twizz, Nov 25 2010

Third strip of four. http://www.xkcd.com/824/
[jutta, Nov 25 2010]

[link]






       Supremely logical. [+]
8th of 7, Nov 25 2010
  

       ... because you have more information, when you have less data...
Jinbish, Nov 25 2010
  

       WTCTTISIXKCDWIBNIIWR?
pertinax, Nov 25 2010
  

       Yeah, I worry about that, too---but it's not the same as Bill Amend's guest strip, it's really taking the opposite direction in the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. (I like Amend's version better because it doesn't require mistaking knowability for knowledge, it's purely a quantum/Newtonian world joke. But in a relativistic universe, YMMV.)
jutta, Nov 25 2010
  

       If the rotating mass were actually a wheel rotating at a constant rate, then its momentum would be known precisely but its location would be smeared out, and eventually you would find it underfoot.
ldischler, Nov 25 2010
  

       //in a relativistic universe, YMMV//   

       Ah, so very true.
BunsenHoneydew, Nov 27 2010
  
      
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