- #1
cataclysmic
- 8
- 0
I've been reading & watching videos about the double slit experiment, and I'm failing to see what's so interesting & strange about it (I hope someone can enlighten me on what I'm missing).
The weirdness is NOT the fact that observing an electron changes it's behaviour (right?)
At first I thought the strangeness was that simply observing a single electron could make it go through one slit instead of two (i.e. simply looking at a particle can change its behaviour - wow spooky!). But I recently learned, if I understand correctly, that there's nothing spooky about that at all - it's simply that in order to observe an electron you need to fire a photon at it, and the photon is energy which of course alters the electron in some way. Right? Simple and logical - not weird at all.
Is the weirdness the fact that a single electron goes through both slits?
The only other potential weirdness I can see is that single electrons fired one at a time at the two slits cause an interference pattern. This is a bit weird because the only explanation seems to be that each single electron somehow goes through 2 slits and interferes with itself. But is that actually weird? It doesn't seem any weirder to me than that fact that light sometimes acts like a particle and sometimes like a wave. If light can do it, why not an electron? Why is it so strange that a single electron acts like a wave and goes through both slits? It doesn't seem that weird and mysterious to me.
I'm sure there probably IS something weird/mysterious/fascinating about the double slit experiment since everyone says there is and thinks it's a big deal, so if someone can help me to understand what that is I'd appreciate it.
The weirdness is NOT the fact that observing an electron changes it's behaviour (right?)
At first I thought the strangeness was that simply observing a single electron could make it go through one slit instead of two (i.e. simply looking at a particle can change its behaviour - wow spooky!). But I recently learned, if I understand correctly, that there's nothing spooky about that at all - it's simply that in order to observe an electron you need to fire a photon at it, and the photon is energy which of course alters the electron in some way. Right? Simple and logical - not weird at all.
Is the weirdness the fact that a single electron goes through both slits?
The only other potential weirdness I can see is that single electrons fired one at a time at the two slits cause an interference pattern. This is a bit weird because the only explanation seems to be that each single electron somehow goes through 2 slits and interferes with itself. But is that actually weird? It doesn't seem any weirder to me than that fact that light sometimes acts like a particle and sometimes like a wave. If light can do it, why not an electron? Why is it so strange that a single electron acts like a wave and goes through both slits? It doesn't seem that weird and mysterious to me.
I'm sure there probably IS something weird/mysterious/fascinating about the double slit experiment since everyone says there is and thinks it's a big deal, so if someone can help me to understand what that is I'd appreciate it.