

What exactly is bouncing off the particle being observed? How is it being directed toward the target particle? With the way they design these experiments, as far as I know, there should be no overt effect like that- certainly not the actual impact of matter as you’re describing. You’re saying to observe a particle we’re bouncing particles off of that observed particle? I don’t think that’s the case. Usually the second one is only possible if it’s something that like…as long as it’s known, it won’t render their data useless…if that makes sense (so being aware that it is a factor is key) Anyway… I mean, in general they either eliminate the possibility of their tools affecting what they’re measuring OR they take that into account as a variable. Scientists aren’t just straight up missing the impact of what would be such an obvious flaw in these experiments. I just don’t think what the commenter described is true since, well, I’d assume the researchers would know that sort of thing could skew the results & therefore lead to an incorrect conclusion.

Thank you! I didn’t think that explanation made sense, since any effect upon the particle being observed would surely be taken into account in these experiments…and because the detection unit (which “catches” the electrons passing through either slit) doesn’t work by shooting particles at them, as far as I know…even if it did, that wouldn’t be ignored as a variable or whatever…right? I assume such interaction isn’t the method of detection anyway how the materials used in the experiment could potentially influence the subject being measured is exactly what they control for, among other things- the environment itself, the actions taken as it is conducted and how conditions change…etc. For a more detailed, but still reasonably gentle, introduction to quantum mechanics, read Schrödinger's equation - what is it?.For a gentle introduction to quantum mechanics, read A ridiculously short introduction to some very basic quantum mechanics.For an extremely gentle introduction to some of the strange aspects of quantum mechanics, read Watch and learn.The question of exactly how that happens constitutes the measurement problem of quantum mechanics. It also suggests that the act of observing, of measuring, a quantum system has a profound effect on the system. That's the famous wave particle duality of quantum mechanics. What does the experiment tell us? It suggests that what we call "particles", such as electrons, somehow combine characteristics of particles and characteristics of waves. It's as if they knew they were being spied on and decided not to be caught in the act of performing weird quantum shenanigans. Looking makes sure that the electrons travel like well-behaved Particle pattern of two strips, as seen in the first picture above! The interference pattern disappears. You do that, then the pattern on the detector screen turns into the To find out, you might place a detector by the slits, to see which Interferes with itself, and then recombines to meet the second screen as a single, localised particle? Strangely, each individual electron contributes one dot to an overall pattern that looks like the interference pattern of a wave.īe that each electrons somehow splits, passes through both slits at once, Remains even when you fire the electrons one by one, so that they have One possibility might be that the electrons somehow interfere with each other, so they don't arrive in the same places they would if they were alone.
