Double slit experiment Definition and 484 Threads

All these videos and articles about the Double Slit Experiment say that if we "look" where the single photons go, they act like particles and if we don't "look" they act like waves, creating the interference pattern... BUT What does it mean to "look"? We're not using our eyes or any camera...

Homework Statement I am having troubles trying to figure out systematic and random errors when conducting Young's double slit experiment. Homework Equations NA The Attempt at a Solution I have found one error which could be correct, it is the fact that the laser was not at right angles with...

Homework Statement A double-slit experiment uses a helium-neon laser with a wavelength of 633 nm and a slit separation of 12mm. When a thin sheet of glass is placed in front of one of the slits, the interference pattern shifts by 5 fringes. When the experiment is repeated under water, the shift...

I am new here so I will start with a warming up question :) My question is very trivial here we go: In double slit experiment when shooting one photon at a time, we get interference pattern. Then when we put a sensor at one of the slits the interference pattern disappears because we now know...

Has anyone performed the double slit experiment in three dimensions? By this I mean, having double slits and a detection screen on three sides? This would imply there are 6 slits and 3 detection screens. What would we observe? Would we see the electron exhibiting wave like behavior (ie...

How does BH deal with the destruction of interference in the double slit experiment when a detector is placed at the slits? If the wave function never collapses, then shouldn't the particle still follow the path? Does the measuring device change the shape of the wave function so that it doesn't...

I would like to ask this question. In the double slit experiment on wave particle duality of photon, we know that the wave function collapses and the photon behave like a particle whenever we peek. Has anyone ever placed a second double slit behind the detector to see whether a particle regain...

Homework Statement A double-spit experiment is performed with light of wavelength 600 nm. A wide viewing screen is 2m behind the grating. What is the distance between the two m=2 bright fringes on the screen? The slit separation given is 0.1 mm. Homework Equations Given the wavelength and...

I am not a physicist but I am interested in the double slit experiment and would like a definitive answer, from a physicist, to my question as follows:. If the which path is just detected by a detector, without it flashing and bleeping at the same time, and without the detections being recorded...

I have a question on a particular version of the double slit experiment (I know there are many). I am not sure I understood it correctly, so I am going to explain it in a very basic manner and in my own words. You tell me if my explanation is correct or not, and then I have another question...

In the literature we are told that the double slit experiment works but are given no description of the experiment apparatus How big are the slits, how far apart are they, or does it matter Would using 3 slits make a difference, would photon go through A and B, or through B and C, or all 3. When...

When was it first experimentally seen that particle detectors can change the interference pattern effect expected in a double slit experiment? Is it still theoretical? What were some double slit experiments in the early era of quantum mechanics? How were they handled?

Has someone attempted to criss-cross multiple double slit experiment paths? The purpose would be to mix paths of observed and free particles. I want to know if clumps and fringes appear everywhere or we would get something new.

I've been thinking about a communication system that could allow faster than light communication. The basic principle that would make this system work come from the double-slit experiment and Wheleer's delayed choice experiment, taking advantage of the different patterns that would appear on a...

When it's desired to detect an electron coming through one of the slits in the mask of the double slit experiment, how exactly is the detection done without blocking the electron from reaching the background screen? In another thread it's mentioned that a semiconductor detector is placed behind...

Homework Statement Here i am asked to find the phase difference. Homework EquationsThe Attempt at a Solution I know that usually the equation is mλ=asinΘ

Hello, in the double slit experiment, what will be the result if two persons are checking the experiment using the same equipment to perform the experiment, but one person will take note from which slit is passing the electron while the other is not checking. Will they see the same thing...

I would like to show you my own opinion about DSE. I might be silly but I suspect data filtering issue. Let's suppose we have a detector DA for slit A, DB for slit B and a interference detector D0. If we consider the photon a wave pulse it means it will go either through a slit or through both...

Homework Statement Hi, I want to apologize for any grammar errors in advance since english is not my first language. But i hope it is good enough such that the question is clear: I want to calculate the velocity of a Helium-atom after it scattered on a double slit. The following information are...

What is detected on the second screen if after a photon went through the slits but before it hits the second screen, the screen with slits is removed (or both slits are closed)?

Is one particle detected on the detection screen for each particle shot in a double slit experiment? Or do some particles fail to be detected because they hit the barrier in between the two slits? In other words, is there an exact one to one correspondence of particles shot to particles...

Homework Statement monochromatic light of 625 nm of wavelength falls normal to the optical bar. Total number of light lines that appear behind the bar is 11. What is the constant of the difraction bar? Homework Equations 3. The Attempt at a Solution [/B] I tried ##dsinx=ms## where ##s## is the...

I know this question has been asked before but I have only found threads for it at an undergraduate's level of understanding and I am just finishing ninth grade. How does the double slit experiment prove superposition? What led me to ask this question, was that, since when you close one slit the...

In the third book of Feymann's Lectures on Physics(section 1-8) he describes how "the Uncertainty Principle protects Quantum Mechanics." The experimental situation is a modified double slit experiment where the two slits are put on rollers in an attempt to detect which slit an electron passes...

1. The statement, all variables and given/known data Hi I'm doing this experiment where we need to find the wavelength of our laser light source. I am unsure what the variables IV and DV would be and the controlled variables? Also how will I make the graph? I'm in AS level so please don't make...

Suppose we have an elementary double-slit experiment: A laser fires individual photons through a double slit at a detectionscreen made of atoms. As we fire photons, an interference pattern emerges, exposing the momentum of the photons (the frequency of the laser). So, we have registration of...

From my shallow understanding, when we shoot a small amount of electrons through the slits while observing, the observation interfere with the electrons and the quantum system and thus collapse the wave function, making the electrons behave like a particle and form a 2-slit pattern on the...

I'd like to ask what exactly do the results of double slit experiment mean? I must confess that I've read about this mainly in New Age literature where it was used as a "proof" that our consciousness changes reality. I know that Physicists probably don't like such explanations :eek: So I'd like...

When the slits are made narrower (but with same separation) why are more fringes produced? If the slits are narrower, less light enters, so less light interferes with each other, so lesser number of fringes should be produced, isn't it?

Hi, I’m new to the forum and I would like to ask some questions. I’m not a physicist –for some reason that I’ll always regret I chose Business Studies- and my knowledge of physics is limited to high school, physics books and documentaries; which I must have watched them all by now. Anyway, for...

Hiya, Another me trying to grasp some physical experiment. I'm working myself through a Dutch popular science book "Snaartheorie" (String Theory) by 'our' professor Marcel Vonk: it's meant to give the reader a maths-less impression of the theories behind string theory. Vonk starts with an...

Might I be so bold as to ask a question about the "double slit experiment". Was wondering...have scientist ever considered...turning the observation on and off...? Is it even possible...? Experiment says...when observed...particles react one way...and when not observed...they react a different...

Homework Statement For a question in a worksheet (the actual question is irrelevant), my physics teacher said, in the context of the Young double slit experiment with light, if you make one of the slits smaller, then the amplitude of light from that source will also decrease. Is that true...

I know when they performed the famous double slits experiment they used either electrons, or photons. I am trying to find out what is the largest size we could use (proton, molecule, etc) where the probability of wave-particle duality to occur in the experiment drops to something negligible...

Homework Statement A thin flake of mica (n=1.58) is used to cover one slit of a double-slit arrangement.The central point on the screen is occupied by the 7th brigth fringe.If lamda = 550nm, what is the thickness of the mica? Homework Equations path difference d=(n-1)*thickness d=7*lamda...

Hello, All! I'm writing a bit of fiction, and as a newcomer to the world of Quantum Physics, I thought I'd clarify a few concepts here, to avoid lapsing into technobabble. I'm trying to make something along the lines of the film Primer, which tries to incorporate as much realism as possible...

I was watching a video about the double slit experiment because I found it interesting, However, watching this vid raised more questions than it did answer. I would like to know why did the outcomes of the experiment only change when we observed it... wasn't the electron interacting with...

Standard slit lamp experiment with detectors at the slits turned on. This creates two beams without an interference pattern at the screen. Now, impose a second pair of slits (without detectors) in the path of one of the beams. What will be the pattern on the screen? I'm confident this has...

Pretty obvious that measuring at the double slits neutralizes whatever action or reaction is creating the wave pattern. But why the quantum leap to assuming superposition? What other configurations have been tested or were there just slits used? What about a round hole or holes, an “X” slit or...

Hey guys the Idea of simulating the DSE with a program caught my interest but I just had a few questions regarding the DSE Is there a function that models the probability of finding an electron at a certain point ONCE It's BEEN FIRED FROM AN ELECTRON GUN? like an amplitude function squared or...

I understand the experiment and the trigonometry involved except for one statement. Why is BP-AP=BD in this diagram http://www.citycollegiate.com/interference2.htm How do you know this/ work it out. Many thanks

I just thought about this one, suppose we have the classic double slit experiment setting, and we add near the holes in the slits a strong magnetic field, what will happen? what if the magnetic field was only on one slit? What if we put that magnetic field in place (2) instead of (1), would that...

http://www.pnas.org/content/109/24/9314.full According to the experimenters they have found out which path the photon took and still observed the interference pattern. So they know that the particle went through the left or right slit but at the same time saw the interference pattern built up...

I don't know if you physicist out there knows it, but the statement that observing something changes its state is having a drastic impact on the less informed populace at wide. An example, one of the most popular Quantum Physics video on youtube <Link to video not acceptable under PF rules...

In 2012, experimenters showed that when two entangled photons separate and when one goes through the double slit, we can tell which slit it went through and see that they still created an interference pattern because the photon that it was entangled to tells us which slit it went through. What...

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?

Homework Statement In a Young's double slits experiment, a monochromatic light source of wavelength 700nm is used and the separation of the slits is 0.1mm. If 15 bright fringes are observed, what is the angle subtended by those fringes at the centre of the double slit? A. 6.0° B. 5.6° C. 5.2°...

In one double slit experiment, one physicist placed a convex lens before the back screen detector. The individual photons passed through the double slit then through the lens. The individual photons then go through the focal point, then a good distance after they reach the focal point they hit...

In afshar's experiment, it shows that the single photon goes through only one of the slits and produces an interference pattern. How is this possible? In this experiment, do we really know which slit the photon went through?

Homework Statement A sheet of mica ( approximate 6-7 µm) covers one slit of a double-slit apparatus and has a n= 1.582. There is a central maximum of 539 nm. What is the exact thickness of the sheet of mica? Homework EquationsThe Attempt at a Solution I think you can solve this with the...