How do I explain quantum superposition?

[Bianca Meske]

I'm a student trying to explain quantum superposition without using Schrödinger's cat. Instead, I'm trying to use the principal of wave particle duality to explain how a particle can be in multiple states (and locations) at once before it is observed due to wave properties. However, I'm unsure how to do this effectively and simply for others to understand. Any ideas?

 

[Nugatory]

I'm a student trying to explain quantum superposition without using Schrödinger's cat.

Good. Schrödinger's cat is not an example of superposition, it is an example of how not to use superposition. Many popular "explanations" of the cat misunderstand what Schrödinger was doing when he described the thought experiment; in fact he was arguing that the idea of a cat in a superposition of dead and alive was absurd, and therefore that something was wrong with the then-current (almost a century ago) understanding of QM because it seemed to predict that result. We have many older threads here about this.

Instead, I'm trying to use the principal of wave particle duality to explain how a particle can be in multiple states (and locations) at once before it is observed due to wave properties.

Not so good. Wave-particle duality was recognized as a wrong turn in the development of quantum mechanics at about the same time that Schrödinger proposed the cat. Again, many oversimplified presentations of the theory miss this, and we have many threads about it.

However, I'm unsure how to do this effectively and simply for others to understand. Any ideas?

Some of the best examples of superposition come from photons directed at polarizers. The states "vertically polarized" and "horizontally polarized" can be written as superpositions of "polarized 45 degrees left" and "polarized 45 degrees right"; and the two 45 degree states can be written as superpositions of vertically polarized and horizontally polarized.

When a photon approaches a polarizing filter set at some arbitrary angle then no matter what the polarization of that photon is, we can rewrite it as a superposition of "polarized at the polarizer angle" and "polarized perpendicular to the polarizer angle". Same angle makes it through every time, perpendicular never does.

 

[Bianca Meske]

So can the double slit experiment be used accurately to explain superposition or no?

 

[CHOP]

So, you just want to explain superposition? Just so it can be understood (by the average person) what that is even referring to?
You don't care how to explain it, as long as it is explained?

 

[ZapperZ]

I'm a student trying to explain quantum superposition without using Schrödinger's cat. Instead, I'm trying to use the principal of wave particle duality to explain how a particle can be in multiple states (and locations) at once before it is observed due to wave properties. However, I'm unsure how to do this effectively and simply for others to understand. Any ideas?

Let's go back a few steps. Can you explain the "usual" superposition of waves? For example, if I take two waves of slightly different wavelengths, I can produce a superposition of those waves to produce a new wave.

Are you able to "explain" that?

Zz.