Nav said:In the double slit experiment, what is the position and momentum of an electron/photon?
Is the position of the electron/photon which slit it went through? And is the momentum of the electron/photon the wave like interference pattern detected on the detector screen?
In the double slit experiment, the position and momentum of a particle are complementary properties. This means that the more precisely you know the position of the particle, the less precisely you know its momentum, and vice versa. This is known as the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle.
The double slit experiment shows that particles, such as electrons, exhibit both wave-like and particle-like behavior. This is known as the wave-particle duality of matter. The interference pattern observed when particles pass through two slits suggests that they behave like waves, while the detection of individual particles hitting a screen shows their particle-like nature.
No, due to the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, the position and momentum of a particle cannot be measured simultaneously in the double slit experiment. This is because the act of measurement itself affects the state of the particle, making it impossible to know both properties with certainty at the same time.
The width of the slits affects the diffraction of the particles passing through them, which in turn affects the interference pattern observed on the screen. Wider slits result in a wider interference pattern, while narrower slits result in a narrower interference pattern.
No, the double slit experiment does not provide information about the exact trajectory of a particle. This is because the particle's path is influenced by its wave-like behavior, making it impossible to predict with certainty where it will land on the screen. Instead, we can only determine the probability of the particle landing at a certain point on the screen.