Timeline for Does an electron pass through both slits in the double-slit experiment?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
17 events
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| Aug 28 at 16:44 | comment | added | James | @DukeWilliam It's often glossed over that if one sends just a single electron towards the slit, one is not guaranteed to see a spot on the screen where it had hit. So the electron is not all-seeing & all-knowing about the topology around it. A moving electron sends out ripples of electric & magnetic waves at the speed $c$. With 2 slits open, then the wave passing through the other slit can travel a longer distance to meet the electron after the slit. This means the electron can interact with its own wave. It seems plausible from here that the electron could be wave-guided to form fringes. | |
| Apr 21 at 18:03 | comment | added | user233953 | @Duke William "... As Einstein has said, you could not be a scientist if you did not know that the external world existed in reality, but that knowledge is not gained by any process of reasoning. It is a direct perception and, therefore, in its nature akin to what we call Faith. It is a metaphysical belief. ” - Planck. Take this wtih a grain of salt as i just finished my physics undergrad but I generally lean towards FlatterManns view that particles are just convenient approximations and the wave function is whats real a la en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Many-worlds_interpretation | |
| Jun 21, 2023 at 13:23 | history | edited | Duke William | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
Added an additional hyperlink.
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| Jun 14, 2023 at 16:45 | answer | added | Steven Sagona | timeline score: 1 | |
| Jun 11, 2023 at 1:32 | history | edited | Duke William | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
Added an additional hyperlinks.
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| Jun 10, 2023 at 16:18 | comment | added | PhysicsDave | Interesting wiki/Dirac note on QFT: “Therefore, even in a perfect vacuum, there remains an oscillating electromagnetic field having zero-point energy. It is this quantum fluctuation of electromagnetic fields in the vacuum that "stimulates" the spontaneous emission of radiation by electrons in atoms. | |
| Jun 10, 2023 at 14:13 | comment | added | FlatterMann | As a general comment: physics is not what the majority believes. It is a collection of facts about nature and their rational explanation. Nowhere in that rational explanation do particles show up. What does show up is exactly what you were told in high school: irreversible energy transfers. Does energy in a system get lost if you don't look at it? Of course not. Does that mean that it is localized in some speck of dust? Of course not. It's that trivially false "logical" step that creates particles in your mind and only in your mind. | |
| Jun 10, 2023 at 4:59 | comment | added | Duke William | @FlatterMann I think the mainstream physics POV is that things like particles exist even between the measurements. It is true what you said that we cannot determine the existence of such things outside of measurements or interactions. But as Einstein, they do not like to think the moon is not there when you don't look at it. So the standard is to take measurements as indicators of the real thing (measurement is derived from the real physical thing), not the measurement/interaction itself as the only real thing. | |
| Jun 10, 2023 at 0:40 | comment | added | PhysicsDave | No it passes thru one slit ... the EM field that guides it goes thru both. | |
| Jun 9, 2023 at 19:29 | answer | added | anna v | timeline score: 0 | |
| Jun 9, 2023 at 19:08 | comment | added | FlatterMann | There simply is no "electron" without an electron being detected. An electron is not a thing that has an existence independent of emission and absorption processes. That's the great lesson of quantum mechanics... which is being taught poorly. | |
| Jun 9, 2023 at 6:22 | history | edited | Duke William | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
Added an additional hyperlink.
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| Jun 9, 2023 at 4:43 | history | edited | kricheli | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
Edited title
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| Jun 8, 2023 at 23:20 | answer | added | naturallyInconsistent | timeline score: 1 | |
| Jun 8, 2023 at 14:18 | answer | added | Andrei | timeline score: 0 | |
| Jun 8, 2023 at 11:09 | answer | added | alanf | timeline score: 2 | |
| Jun 8, 2023 at 8:27 | history | asked | Duke William | CC BY-SA 4.0 |