Double-slit experiment Definition and 115 Threads

I have basically two doubts regarding diffraction and interference. First of all, according to my CIE A level Physics book, while the double slit experiment results in fringes that are more or less equally separated, a diffraction grating results in fringes that are not equally separated. Why is...

Homework Statement When two parallel slits are illuminated with monochromatic light of wavelength 632.8 nm, the angle between the center of the central maximum and the center of the second side maximum is .45 degrees. What is the distance between the parallel slits. Homework Equations...

I have a doubt about the interference wave pattern of double slit experiment with light beam. does it mean the interference of electromagnetic wave (which tells about the frequency causing color) or Spatial probability wave (which was explained by Max Born). I am not good at math. can someone...

double-slit experiment and "watching the electrons" I'm trying to build a picture of what is happening in the double-hole experiment when you are "watching the electrons" (http://feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/III_01.html#Ch1-S6). It's mostly clear to me but I do have some questions: if you use a...

Both photons and electrons give the same kind of interference pattern in the double-slit experiment, but while in the case of electrons this carachteristic interference pattern is due to the probabilistic complex wavefunction of the Schrodinger equation within NRQM, for photons no such...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-7DsLR5wtk&list=PLE7AE1B2E44908250&index=7 At 1:57, James Binney describes the two-slit experiment with an electron gun. He mentions the electron gun fires electrons at one well-defined tuned energy. My question is if we fire each electron one by one to the...

Hi Guys, I am not a physicist, just an average blue collar Joe who finds QM fascinating. I was wondering why they always use parallel slits. Has anybody ever tried varying the angle between the slits? And what would the interference pattern look like at different angles, starting at 1...

Hi, I know that there are numerous threads about this, and I've also read several papers about it on the web. Still, I don't understand how the far-reaching conclusions of QM follow from the setup or results of the double-slit experiment. If anyone here has the patience to explain in...

Hello. I found it very strange that matter behave as a wave and started thinking a lot... I have seen a video previously explaining this experiment and when I saw this: In red is the first path and in blue the second path. Could it be the answer? At the end of the video, in the screen of...

I'm trying to understand the implications of the double-slit experiment, and I have been considering what QM theory would predict as the outcome of the following experiment: Consider an electron gun firing electrons towards a detection screen two metres away (gun perpendicular to screen), and...

In the double-slit experiment, an interference pattern emerges, until observed, whereby there emerges no diffraction pattern. I was thinking about this, and the following occurred to me. I was hoping someone could tell me if I was approaching a better understanding... When observed, the wave...

Concerning the double-slit experiment: In the basic version of this experiment, photons pass through a thin plate pierced by two parallel slits. The photons (interference pattern) are observed on a screen behind the pierced thin plate. If you change the depth of the slits does it change...

I recently been reading up quantum physics including the double-slit experiments and I got two basic questions: 1# Why does the electron not act like a wave when there is only one slit? Shouldn't a single slit still result in a wave like pattern? 2# 'Measuring' the wave seems to turn it...

One photon produces a point on the screen. Many photons produce an interference pattern, whether the photons all arrive at the screen at once, or whether they are fired at the screen one by one. What is so 'counter-intuitive' about that? When we know that the electron shell that produces...

If a particle has the probability of being in two places at once, then is it possible to use a particle accelerator to accelerate the particle to a high energy and into the two slits and then place two detectors, with one at each slit, to convert the energy of the particle into electricity...

I guess inaccuracies in the actual experiment suggests the answer for this question. But would still ask to confirm. If instead of using a whole screen, one simply puts half a screen. That is, from a top view the screen extends upwards from the central beam axis, also right in the middle...

Can someone supply me with a link to a good article or book, or anything, that gives details on the type of detector that determines "which way" in experiments where the double-slit interference pattern is cancelled? DC

Is this right about the double-slit experiment and quantum physics?? Well I'm trying to understand the double-slit experiment (and quantum mechanics), so could you tell me if this is correct? A photon is fired through two slits at a plate behind the slits. As long as it isn't observed it...

Homework Statement In a double slit-experiment, how far apart do the path length differences have to be to get a pattern with adjacent constructive and destructive interference fringes? I have no clue how to even begin this problem.

Homework Statement Would it be possible to do a double-slit experiment for water waves? Can you observe wave interference in the turtle pond on campus? Homework Equations The Attempt at a Solution I feel that since water waves are in fact waves, they can no doubt interfere with...

Is it even possible to do so? I used a thick paper sheet with 1x5 mm slits 5mm apart with a normal flashlight (just to do a rough test). I saw what looked like the patches of light with darkness in between, but it was very, very faint.. Is it possible to do an effective model with easy-to-get...

Homework Statement In a Young's double-slit experiment, two rays of monochromatic light emerge from the slits and meet at a point on a distant screen, as in the figure below. The point on the screen where these two rays meet is the eighth-order bright fringe. The difference in the distances...

So, I recently read "Divining Light" by Ted Kosmatka. In it, he proposes a thought experiment (acted out in full by his characters) in which the double-slit experiment with electrons is performed. The detectors at each slit are wired to a computer, and do not click or turn on a light, merely...

Hello, I am not educated in physics, but I would like to gain some understanding on the double-slit experiment. I am suspecting that not only its results are to me hardly understandable (as far as I know, that is the normal case), but also some of the assumptions on which the experiment...

Not sure whether to put this in the QM forum or the classical forum, you'll see why-- I was thinking about the http://grad.physics.sunysb.edu/~amarch/ version of the double slit experiment, in which the information about which slit the particle went through is obtained in a somewhat unusual...

Homework Statement In a double-slit experiment, He-Ne laser light of wavelength 633 nm produced an interference pattern on a screen placed at some distance from the slits. When one of the slits was covered with a thin glass slide of thickness 12.0 um, the central fringe shifted to the point...

In the double slit experiment, a wave is forced to go through a tiny slit. I do not understand what is stopping it from going through the barrier. After all, we can think of an electromagnetic wave as just the electric/magnetic fields of a sinusoidally oscillating particle, evaluated using...

I have read that some universities with strong physics programs have equipment setup for the double-slit experiment in order to occasionally demonstrate to undergraduates and for experimental purposes. Does anyone know which universities these might be in the US and Europe?

Hi, I am not sure if this kind of experiment has been performed before. If so, great, I would love to see the results. Anyway, here goes. The double-slit experiments with photons, electrons and even...

In regards to the double-slit experiment, where two waves cancel each other out (causing destructive interference), does that cancel out the particle too? I would assume all particles would form the light areas of the interference pattern. Just don't understand how the light/dark bands are...

This isn't really homework so please let me know if I've posted this in the wrong place. We've been given the task of carrying out an experiment on pretty much any topic. I've chosen young's double slit experiment to show that light has wave-like properties, and I'm also going to use the...

Hello guys I was a confused by this part of the Wiki article on "Double-slit experiment": It seems like all the (popular physics) accounts I'm familiar with go out of their way to endorse exactly the point in question. Is the author of the wiki article trying to impress that "detection" is...

If, in the double-slit experiment, individual photons only interfere with themselves, as apparently happens when the stream of photons is slowed down to "one at a time", does the same rule or phenomenon apply to the various Michelson interferometer experiments? I think it was in Dirac’s...

Who did and when, the first double-slit experiment using single electrons? (no wikipedia reference please...)

Hello; In classical physics, measurement does not play a major role, but in quantum physics measurement plays an active role, correct? In the double-slit experiment, whether or not the path of the particle is measured - a detector finds which slit it passes through. I'm not questioning why...

Hi, not sure if this is the right section, but I'll post this here anyway. I'm after some specific details of the famous double slit experiment with electrons: 1. How wide are the slits? 2. How far apart are the slits? 3. What is the barrier (i.e. around the slit) made of? 4. How can we...

In the case of the double-slit experiment using electrons, what kind of interference pattern is created? Characteristic to transverse or longitudinal waves? Can we tell only analyzing the interference pattern what type of waves created it? Thanks!

Will a double-slit experiment work (exhibit an interference pattern) with a source of photons that is just monochromatic or do the photons need to be in the same quantum state? More generally, do all properties of a source of quantum particles need to be identical in order for the double-slit...

Hi. I'd like to talk about the double-slit experiment performed with electrons. We know that any device, used to tell us which slit the electron passed through, destroy the interference pattern that we would observe if we used no devices. Well, but what does it happen if we don't receive the...

Consider the following double-slit experiment: The source is an optical laser. The beam is, say, ½-inch wide and the laser is located far enough, say 10 yards, from the 2 slits to guarantee a large uncertainty in position (because of the very small uncertainty in the momentum direction)...

Here's my puzzle... Electrons through a single slit one at time - standard distribution Electrons through a double slit one at a time - interference pattern Set up a detector to observe which slit the electrons passed through - back to a standard distribution. This is all well and good...

Considering the double-slit-experiment version whereby only one electron is fired at once, and a measuring device is placed by one of the slits, which can determine through which slit te electron travels. My question would be: Which case is sufficient to qualify as an observation that will...

Homework Statement A sheet of plastic, n=1.6, covers the entrance of one slit of a double-slit. When the double-slit is illuminated by monochromatic light with wavelength = 586 nm, the center of the screen on the other side of the double-slit appears dark rather than light. What is the...

Homework Statement With regard to Young's double slit experiment, locate the position above the central axis of the 3rd bright fringe for light of wavelength 500nm incident on slits separated by 0.1mm, when a thin (0.001mm) parallel sheet of glass of index 1.4 is placed in front of the slits...

Hi. I've just started learning about quantum mechanics, and I find the whole subject very interesting. I have read about the double-slit experiment, and I didn't understand a couple of things. Assuming one were to fire one particle at a time at the diffraction slit: - will all particles pass...

Hi, I have problem with electron interference in double-slit experiment.Does the electron pass two slit at the same time or physicist just try to justify the electron's behavior by using wave matter? Is anyone help me? Of course,My backgroud is that I'm under graduated in physics. thanks

Homework Statement Two shortwave radio antennas broadcast identical, in-phase signals at the same frequency. The transmitters are 176.0 m north, and 176.0 m south of Western Ave, respectively, as shown (that is, they are separated by 352.0 m). Western Ave is 452.0 m long. Starting at the end...

Hi everyone, Thanks in advance for any insights you might be able to lead me to. The photoelectric effect is a well known phenomenon where an incident photon of some energy can stimulate the emission of an electron when absorbed, so long as the energy of the photon can promote an electron...

Homework Statement a) What are the factors that contribute to the error in the measurement of the wavelength of laser light? b) Are there methods you might use to reduce the error, given that the wavelength of the laser light is known to at at least four significant digits? The Attempt...

Hello, I am new in this forum and I am not a scientist Can someone help me to understand the following question: does this String theory confute and negate the Observer Effect and that there is a subjective reality? Or it confirms it Thank you so much Rossella