Viewing the wave properties of a macroscopic object

[Boltzman Oscillation]

My textbook explained that it would be hard to see the wavelength properties of a tennis ball because we would have to find a very tiny slit in which to pass the tennis ball through. The wavelength of the tennis ball can be calculated using debroglie formula: wavelength = h/p

I was wondering if a black-hole would show these properties since a black-hole compresses everything through an infinitely small hole (I think, I've never taken astrophysics).

 

[PeterDonis]

I was wondering if a black-hole would show these properties

A black hole is not an ordinary object or a quantum particle, so this question doesn't really have any meaning.

since a black-hole compresses everything through an infinitely small hole

I don't know what you mean by this.

 

[Boltzman Oscillation]

A black hole is not an ordinary object or a quantum particle, so this question doesn't really have any meaning.
I don't know what you mean by this.

Sorry i probably meant wormhole and not black hole. A wormhole can get extremely small right? A tennis ball passing through it would show its wave properties because the size of the wormhole is smaller than the wavelength of the tennis ball.

 

[PeterDonis]

i probably meant wormhole and not black hole

A wormhole isn't an ordinary object or a quantum particle either, so the question isn't any more meaningful for a wormhole than for a black hole.

A tennis ball passing through it would show its wave properties because the size of the wormhole is smaller than the wavelength of the tennis ball.

A wormhole isn't a slit or diffraction grating either, so this isn't a valid analogy.

 

[PeterDonis]

it would be hard to see the wavelength properties of a tennis ball because we would have to find a very tiny slit in which to pass the tennis ball through

Even more than that, it's because you can't pass a tennis ball through a very tiny slit. It won't go through. A tennis ball is not a single quantum particle. It's a conglomeration of something like $10^{25}$ quantum particles that are interacting with each other in a bound system.

 

[mfb]

A wormhole is also a purely hypothetical concept, we don't know if they exist, and if they do we don't know their properties.

A double-slit experiment with a black hole would be somewhere between challenging and impossible, even if we ignore the problem that we can't produce them. If it is too small it emits too much Hawking radiation, which destroys coherence. If it is too large its gravitational influence will destroy coherence.

 

[Boltzman Oscillation]

Even more than that, it's because you can't pass a tennis ball through a very tiny slit. It won't go through. A tennis ball is not a single quantum particle. It's a conglomeration of something like $10^{25}$ quantum particles that are interacting with each other in a bound system.

Alright, thank you for your answer sir. Would stretching the ball to where it can fit the slit be possible? Or does stretching the object not work? I would guess the stretching the ball to be able to fit that slit would probably break down the forces between the atoms and thus prevent me from even attempting to pass it through the slit?

 

[PeterDonis]

I would guess the stretching the ball to be able to fit that slit would probably break down the forces between the atoms

"Stretching" would be a bad term for what this would amount to. You would be disassembling the ball into its constituent atoms, or at any rate into a huge number of pieces each of which had a small enough number of atoms to pass through the slit.

 

[Boltzman Oscillation]

"Stretching" would be a bad term for what this would amount to. You would be disassembling the ball into its constituent atoms, or at any rate into a huge number of pieces each of which had a small enough number of atoms to pass through the slit.

Sorry for the late reply but from my introductory physics course I learned that objects moving at a very fast velocity stretch. Does this mean that if I threw a tennis ball with enough velocity to stretch it, would it fit past a small slit? Or am I understanding these equations incorrectly?

$$ L = \frac{L_o}{\gamma}$$

 

[PeterDonis]

from my introductory physics course I learned that objects moving at a very fast velocity stretch

You have it backwards; objects moving very fast contract along their direction of motion. In the equation you give, $\gamma > 1$, so $L < L_o$.

Does this mean that if I threw a tennis ball with enough velocity to stretch it, would it fit past a small slit?

Length contraction does not affect the directions perpendicular to the direction of motion, so it doesn't make the object narrower. Therefore it doesn't affect how an object fits through a slit.

 

[Boltzman Oscillation]

You have it backwards; objects moving very fast contract along their direction of motion. In the equation you give, $\gamma > 1$, so $L < L_o$.
Length contraction does not affect the directions perpendicular to the direction of motion, so it doesn't make the object narrower. Therefore it doesn't affect how an object fits through a slit.

okay i will consider what you have told me. Thank you for helping me understand length contraction.