Experimentally determine position of electron

  • Thread starter Thread starter catherinefow
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Electron Position
catherinefow
Messages
1
Reaction score
0
How do we experimentally determine the position of an electron that is not bound to any atom and far away from all other influences including electromagnetic and gravitational fields? [Edit: what would the apparatus be?]
 
Last edited:
Physics news on Phys.org
catherinefow said:
How do we experimentally determine the position of an electron that is not bound to any atom and far away from all other influences including electromagnetic and gravitational fields?

We can't.

It's a bit like determining the position of a bear in the woods. We may have an idea the bear is in there - seen little signs etc - but we don't know precisely where he is. If we lay a bear trap, and the bear walks into it, then we know the position of the bear.
 
Insights auto threads is broken atm, so I'm manually creating these for new Insight articles. Towards the end of the first lecture for the Qiskit Global Summer School 2025, Foundations of Quantum Mechanics, Olivia Lanes (Global Lead, Content and Education IBM) stated... Source: https://www.physicsforums.com/insights/quantum-entanglement-is-a-kinematic-fact-not-a-dynamical-effect/ by @RUTA
If we release an electron around a positively charged sphere, the initial state of electron is a linear combination of Hydrogen-like states. According to quantum mechanics, evolution of time would not change this initial state because the potential is time independent. However, classically we expect the electron to collide with the sphere. So, it seems that the quantum and classics predict different behaviours!

Similar threads

Back
Top