- #1
azztech77
- 3
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Hey everyone - just a bit of a conceptual question regarding the sudden approximation for a particle in an infinite square well. In theory, if we were to suddenly decrease the width of the potential from say L, to L' << L, in a very quick period of time - wouldn't this in some sense constitute a "measurement" of the particle's position in that you would now have a very good idea of where it was (especially if L' is very small) - at what point does the "collapse" of the wavefunction occur? would it be at the point at which the well length L was infinitely small (ie, a delta function potential?). When does collapsing of the wavefunction occur - what I don't understand is that since any measurement of position in the lab has some level of error (We can never pinpoint the particle's position exactly) how could a wavefunction ever truly "collapse" to a delta function? I imagine it doesn't and if anything this is as usual just an approximation of reality.
Many thanks for help clearing up the confusion.
Many thanks for help clearing up the confusion.