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florin3k3
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i've always been curious...WHY did somebody come up with the experiment? why did they think anything special would happen? hope this doesn't sound stupid :)
whybother said:I assume you mean the double slit experiment with electrons? The double slit experiment with photons seems kind of obvious, especially given how long the wave-particle nature of light debate had been going on. Extending it to electrons seems sort of natural in that light, I think (no pun intended).
whybother said:Double slit with electrons wasn't actually done until the 1960s... so there was certainly enough quantum mechanics on the books already to suggest something very weird would happen.
physics_boi95 said:thanks!
yeah sorry, maybe i should have been a bit more clear there. what i meant was basically whether or not the electrons and photons could interfere with themselves, thus changing their probabilities to pass through one slit or the other.
whybother said:Historically, there was a debate as to the nature of light, whether it was a particle... like a rock... or a wave... more like water.
When a flat water wave goes between one slit, it comes out again as a circular wave - this was easily observed. When water would pass through a double slit, it would come out as two waves and interfere- as interference is a thing waves do. They knew this about waves for a long time, so when asking if light was a wave, testing to see if it interfered with itself in a double slit type set up was a fairly obvious choice. Double slits probably just occurred naturally and were observed with water, so it was just a natural choice for light.
The double slit experiment was a long time thought experiment in quantum mechanics even before they were actually able to preform it in the 1960s. People expected the results when they happened.
de Broglie did theoretical work in the early 1900s on "matter-waves" - Light was already accepted/thought of as a wave and a partcile. De Broglie suggested that was true for electrons (and everything else really) too, but being able to describe an associated wave length with material objects (similar the the fact that light has a wave length). If electrons have a wavelength, then they must also have some wave properties, like self interference.
Yes, wave-particle duality of matter was really weird at the time. Not by the 60s though.
The double slit experiment is a classic experiment in physics that demonstrates the wave-particle duality of light and matter. It involves shining a beam of particles or light through two parallel slits and observing the resulting interference pattern on a screen.
The double slit experiment was first performed by English physicist Thomas Young in the early 1800s. However, the experiment was later refined and popularized by physicist Thomas Young in the early 1900s.
The purpose of the double slit experiment is to demonstrate the wave-like behavior of particles and the particle-like behavior of waves. It also helps to illustrate the concept of superposition, where waves can interact and interfere with each other.
Yes, the double slit experiment can be performed with various types of particles, such as electrons, photons, and even molecules. However, the results may vary depending on the properties of the particles used.
The double slit experiment has significant implications in the field of quantum mechanics, as it challenges our understanding of the fundamental nature of particles and waves. It also has practical applications, such as in the development of advanced technologies like electron microscopy and quantum computing.