exclusion principle

American  

noun

Physics.

1. the principle that in any system described by quantum mechanics no two identical particles having spin equal to half an odd integer can be in the same quantum state: first postulated for the electrons in atoms.

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exclusion principle British  

noun

1. See Pauli exclusion principle

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exclusion principle Scientific  

/ ĭk-sklo̅o̅′zhən /

1. See Pauli exclusion principle

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Etymology

Origin of exclusion principle

First recorded in 1925–30

Example Sentences

Understanding the origin of Pauli’s exclusion principle would unlock explanations for all of these deep facts of quotidian life.

From Scientific American • Nov. 22, 2022

Pauli’s exclusion principle was merely a special case of this spin-statistics theorem, as it came to be known.

From Scientific American • Nov. 22, 2022

Explain how two different species can coexist in the same habitat according to the competitive exclusion principle.

From Textbooks • Jun. 9, 2022

The competitive exclusion principle states that no two species can occupy exactly the same niche in exactly the same habitat at exactly the same time.

From Textbooks • Jan. 1, 2018

Discovered in the mid-1920s by German physicist Wolfgang Pauli, the exclusion principle states, roughly, that no two things can be in the same place at the same time.

From "Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea" by Charles Seife