In Michael Frayn’s Copenhagen, the principle is used as a way to examine how truth and memory function and explores their connection.

In 2012, Former President Obama was asked why he is hesitant about asking his aides for guidance. He responded, “It’s the Heisenberg principle,” he said. “Me asking the question changes the answer.” In this case, former President Obama equated Heisenberg’s principle with the “observer effect,” which asserts that looking at something changes how that “something” will behave.

On the last episode of The Big Bang Theory’s second season, the character Sheldon receives an odd email from his boss requesting that Sheldon come to his office the following day. Sheldon’s boss does not indicate what he would like to discuss at the meeting, which perplexes Sheldon and he says, “For the next 840 minutes [the time between that moment and the meeting], I’m effectively one of Heisenberg’s particles. I know where I am, or I know how fact I’m going, but not both!”