Does a Sensor interact with atoms in the double slit experiment?

[user079622]

1. Patterns changes depend sensor is on or off, so sensor must somehow interact with atoms?

2. What is sensor, how he works/detect atoms?

3. If sensor is plugged but human dont monitor his results, what is pattern of atoms?

 

[DrClaude]

1. Patterns changes depend sensor is on or off, so sensor must somehow interact with atoms?

2. What is sensor, how he works/detect atoms?

3. If sensor is plugged but human dont monitor his results, what is pattern of atoms?

1. Yes.
2. The details are not important. But for example, it could be a laser shining light on the atom, with a light detector on the other side to monitor its intensity.
3. Pattern is not affected by humans. In the example in 2, you could even remove the light detector and just have the laser. That would be enough to affect the pattern.

 

[PeroK]

1. Patterns changes depend sensor is on or off, so sensor must somehow interact with atoms?

2. What is sensor, how he works/detect atoms?

3. If sensor is plugged but human dont monitor his results, what is pattern of atoms?

Note that the lecture is significantly wrong. It says that if you have a single slit, then the particles act like particles and do not diffract. But, if you have two slits, then the particles act like waves, diffract and create an interference pattern.

I emailed Al-Khalili about it but I didn't get a response.

 

[user079622]

1. Yes.
2. The details are not important. But for example, it could be a laser shining light on the atom, with a light detector on the other side to monitor its intensity.
3. Pattern is not affected by humans. In the example in 2, you could even remove the light detector and just have the laser. That would be enough to affect the pattern.

If that is case, so there is not mystery here, sensor affect atom, not human consciousness.
Everything is logic.

 

[user079622]

Note that the lecture is significantly wrong. It says that if you have a single slit, then the particles act like particles and do not diffract. But, if you have two slits, then the particles act like waves, diffract and create an interference pattern.

I emailed Al-Khalili about it but I didn't get a response.

Do you agree with text below?

"An electron is never in two places at the same time. That's just an unfortunate mental model that has established itself in the public's imagination about quantum mechanics. In reality superposition is a mathematical property of the theory. It is not a physical property of quantum systems. "

 

[PeroK]

Do you agree with text below?

"An electron is never in two places at the same time. That's just an unfortunate mental model that has established itself in the public's imagination about quantum mechanics.

In reality superposition is a mathematical property of the theory. It is not a physical property of quantum systems. "

I agree with the first part. Not the second. Superposition is a key property of quantum systems.

A particle in QM is described by a state; not by its position. A particle can physically be in a superposition of two states.

The trick, which even the writers of popular science fail to master, is to stop thinking about a particle's position as the characteristic that determines and describes its existence.

 

[user079622]

I agree with the first part. Not the second. Superposition is a key property of quantum systems.

A particle in QM is described by a state; not by its position. A particle can physically be in a superposition of two states.

The trick, which even the writers of popular science fail to master, is to stop thinking about a particle's position as the characteristic that determines and describes its existence.

If sensor affect atom/electron than no mystery here..
In lots of text/videos they say that human consciousness change results.
Physics is not magic, everything is deterministic but problem we dont understand how it works

 

[DrClaude]

In lots of text/videos they say that human consciousness change results.

Not serious sources.

Physics is not magic, everything is deterministic but problem we dont understand how it works

No, as far as we can tell (i.e., quantum mechanics is a correct description of Nature), Nature is not deterministic, but inherently random.

 

[Nugatory]

In lots of text/videos they say that human consciousness change results.

And stuff like that is why we have the forum rules about acceptable sources; textbooks and peer-reviewed publication.

 

[pines-demon]

No, as far as we can tell (i.e., quantum mechanics is a correct description of Nature), Nature is not deterministic, but inherently random.

This is true (unless we take an interpretation different from Copenhagen interpretation)