For a particle in a box, the operator is not self-adjoint and thus does not qualify as the physical momentum. As a result, in general the Ehrenfest theorem is violated. Based upon a recently developed new concept for a self-adjoint momentum operator, we reconsider the theorem and find that it is now indeed satisfied for all physically admissible boundary conditions. We illustrate these results for bouncing wave packets which first spread, then shrink, and return to their original form after a certain revival time. We derive a very simple form of the general Heisenberg–Robertson–Schrödinger uncertainty relation and show that our construction also provides a physical interpretation for it.
