Double Slit Experiment[and God]
- Thread starter Rascal
- Start date
The doubt-slit experiment is one of those lovely mind-bending sort of things that a man can only properly appreciate after a few drink and a concussion. Nevertheless, for the sober and not-so-injured amongst us who are laymen, there is some hope. However I think to first understand the experiment, we must clearly state the full depth of the experiment.
The DSE (Yes, I am too lazy to type “Double-slit experiment these days, deal with it) is not undertaken just with light. In fact, the effects of light are to be expected, as it is normally conceived by the layman that light is composed of waved (Actually, a photon can be more or less said to be a packet of energy of an un-arbitrary amount, i.e., a “quanta”, which acts in the normal “wavicle” sort of way. That however, is neither here nor there...) and thus the results may not sound as surprising to the layman. After-all, a wave which interact create with another wave creates an interference pattern, such is only naturally. When the DSE is done with electrons though—little bits of sub-atomic matter—and the same thing happens...that is when most laymen start to flip-out.
Most of us have enough life experience to know that if you do a macro-scale DSE with, say, marbles, the result would be two bands of marbles directly behind the slits. Electrons though are a little more fickle and act differently. When they are “shot” through in the same manner as photons, they still form an interference pattern. What's more confusing is the fact that this happens even when you fire them one at a time. Fundamentally, this means that—as the thread creator said—the electron must 1.) be acting as a wave, and 2.) be traveling through both slits in such a wave form, so as interact with itself in the wave-form and create an interference pattern. Ergo the interference pattern at the other-end. When the particle is closely observed at the slits however, to see which one it is going through, it acts as a normal particle. Reading “A Brief History of Time” a few years back, this is when I stopped and checked to see if my tea had been spiked. Sadly, it hadn't. Moreover, what made me a little more confused and dazed was when I read that the state of a particle (Its position, velocity, etc.) cannot be known with absolute certainty. Opposing variables, like velocity and position, when measured, make each other less accurate. When you measure position, velocity becomes less accurately measures, and vice versa. This consequently meant two things, one, absolute rest does not exist (To exist, something must have a fixed position and velocity, thus contradicting the Uncertainty Principle) and that knowledge of the state of a particle can only be probabilistic.
Now, I apologize for trying to turn this into a lesson for all the readers; I merely wanted to make the basis of my post understood. The primary question of this thread (Why does observation change a sub-atomic particles nature) and what I feel the best answer to it however, require such a background.
As far as I know, the best explanation of I why some particles change when observed is a confuzzling one to me. I am very much in love with classical mechanics, and as such, this question threatens to knock me unconscious every-time it is let loose in my head. As such, I cannot exactly say just what in the hell causes this or why. However we can take a stab at predicting the resulting state without knowing either. This is best expressed by the “Sum over histories” view of the wave-functions end-state.
SOH (Sum over histories) basically states that a particle, when moving from state “A” to state “B”, or location “A” to location “B”, that it will take every possible path to that. This is congruent with the DSE's observations regarding electrons. Now, to put it in analogous, non-mathematical talk (Which is the only talk on the subject I know), the end-state is determined by the wave-functions of each possibility. When the wave-functions of one possibility and another are not in synch within their wave-function, the wave cancels the other out. When the opposite is true, it strengthens the wave-function. Ergo, the resulting possibility could be chosen and reasonably predicated in regards to one wave-functions relationship with the others. But this, as far as I know, is still a loose theory.
How observation effects this is beyond me. Perhaps it alters the wave-function(s) or collapses just one, thus resulting in what we see as “reality”. I, however, am not about to bet anything on this speculation.
By the way, most of this information was referenced from Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time and the following sources:
~ http://www.ipod.org.uk/reality/reality_quantum_intro.asp
~ http://mulhauser.net/research/tutorials/decoherence/index.html
The DSE (Yes, I am too lazy to type “Double-slit experiment these days, deal with it) is not undertaken just with light. In fact, the effects of light are to be expected, as it is normally conceived by the layman that light is composed of waved (Actually, a photon can be more or less said to be a packet of energy of an un-arbitrary amount, i.e., a “quanta”, which acts in the normal “wavicle” sort of way. That however, is neither here nor there...) and thus the results may not sound as surprising to the layman. After-all, a wave which interact create with another wave creates an interference pattern, such is only naturally. When the DSE is done with electrons though—little bits of sub-atomic matter—and the same thing happens...that is when most laymen start to flip-out.
Most of us have enough life experience to know that if you do a macro-scale DSE with, say, marbles, the result would be two bands of marbles directly behind the slits. Electrons though are a little more fickle and act differently. When they are “shot” through in the same manner as photons, they still form an interference pattern. What's more confusing is the fact that this happens even when you fire them one at a time. Fundamentally, this means that—as the thread creator said—the electron must 1.) be acting as a wave, and 2.) be traveling through both slits in such a wave form, so as interact with itself in the wave-form and create an interference pattern. Ergo the interference pattern at the other-end. When the particle is closely observed at the slits however, to see which one it is going through, it acts as a normal particle. Reading “A Brief History of Time” a few years back, this is when I stopped and checked to see if my tea had been spiked. Sadly, it hadn't. Moreover, what made me a little more confused and dazed was when I read that the state of a particle (Its position, velocity, etc.) cannot be known with absolute certainty. Opposing variables, like velocity and position, when measured, make each other less accurate. When you measure position, velocity becomes less accurately measures, and vice versa. This consequently meant two things, one, absolute rest does not exist (To exist, something must have a fixed position and velocity, thus contradicting the Uncertainty Principle) and that knowledge of the state of a particle can only be probabilistic.
Now, I apologize for trying to turn this into a lesson for all the readers; I merely wanted to make the basis of my post understood. The primary question of this thread (Why does observation change a sub-atomic particles nature) and what I feel the best answer to it however, require such a background.
As far as I know, the best explanation of I why some particles change when observed is a confuzzling one to me. I am very much in love with classical mechanics, and as such, this question threatens to knock me unconscious every-time it is let loose in my head. As such, I cannot exactly say just what in the hell causes this or why. However we can take a stab at predicting the resulting state without knowing either. This is best expressed by the “Sum over histories” view of the wave-functions end-state.
SOH (Sum over histories) basically states that a particle, when moving from state “A” to state “B”, or location “A” to location “B”, that it will take every possible path to that. This is congruent with the DSE's observations regarding electrons. Now, to put it in analogous, non-mathematical talk (Which is the only talk on the subject I know), the end-state is determined by the wave-functions of each possibility. When the wave-functions of one possibility and another are not in synch within their wave-function, the wave cancels the other out. When the opposite is true, it strengthens the wave-function. Ergo, the resulting possibility could be chosen and reasonably predicated in regards to one wave-functions relationship with the others. But this, as far as I know, is still a loose theory.
How observation effects this is beyond me. Perhaps it alters the wave-function(s) or collapses just one, thus resulting in what we see as “reality”. I, however, am not about to bet anything on this speculation.
By the way, most of this information was referenced from Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time and the following sources:
~ http://www.ipod.org.uk/reality/reality_quantum_intro.asp
~ http://mulhauser.net/research/tutorials/decoherence/index.html