0

Are the results of this test, observable with the naked eye? the change from an interference pattern to two slits once there is some sort device that can detect which slit an electron goes through, or is it so small for some reason it can only be measured? Im just wondering what level of observation is necessary in order for this phenomenon to occur. what is the cutoff point? like if you had a device that could barely detect electrons etc. etc.

user718229
  • 103
  • A Level of observation is not a good term. If you speak about electrons - what you probably do - it is easy to detect electrons (not by eye), but extremely difficult to make an experiment with single electron(s). May be this is what you refer to. – jaromrax Feb 09 '17 at 14:08
  • thanks. but if you could set up this experiment, could you still see the change from two slits to multiple with your own eye? – user718229 Feb 09 '17 at 14:16
  • Quantum mechanics forbids the possibility of knowing which slit a photon or an electron went through. As soon as the measure is done, it will disturb the experiment. – Ronan Tarik Drevon Feb 09 '17 at 14:49
  • yes but can the disturbance be seen with the naked eye? the two slits instead of multiple – user718229 Feb 09 '17 at 16:17
  • Not clear if you are talking about electron diffraction or photon diffraction. What is "the change of two slits to multiple"? "The change from an interference pattern to two slits once there is some sort device..." literally makes NO sense. Please, try to clarify. – Floris Feb 10 '17 at 22:57
  • it makes complete sense. fortunately others understood – user718229 Feb 20 '17 at 14:25

2 Answers2

1

You can. It's basically an interference pattern, and we see these all the time. I imagine you could set something up with a laser pointer, some slotted paper, some aluminum foil, and a black marker.

Jake Watrous
  • 473
0

If you are talking about an at home experiment then shooting individual electrons would be very difficult. Photons would be easier, but still not easy. The way that you see the particle properties of light is you need to fire one at a time so that interference properties are not possible. The strange thing is, the individually fired photons still produce an interference pattern. So the interference pattern will still be created, but it will be created by "particles". A while back I asked a question similar to yours. Here it is:Is there a double slit experiment that I can perform that will show the photons acting like particles?

Community
  • 1
Lambda
  • 4,721