I've heard someone state that the double slit experiment can also be done with atoms, not just electrons or photons of light.
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$\begingroup$ It's possible to perform the double slit experiment even with certain kinds of molecules. This is an article about the feat: livescience.com/…. The threshold between quantum and classical physics may not be well-defined: medium.com/the-physics-arxiv-blog/… $\endgroup$– ErnieCommented Jul 26, 2015 at 22:16
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$\begingroup$ Related: physics.stackexchange.com/q/131714 $\endgroup$– dmckee --- ex-moderator kittenCommented Jul 27, 2015 at 0:04
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$\begingroup$ Related: probably any one of these ~100 questions. $\endgroup$– Kyle KanosCommented Jul 27, 2015 at 0:15
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2$\begingroup$ possible duplicate of Which types of particles are affected by the wave-particle duality? $\endgroup$– Kyle KanosCommented Jul 27, 2015 at 0:16
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$\begingroup$ It's not only slit diffraction experiments that are possible - look up the notion of "Atom Laser". $\endgroup$– Selene RoutleyCommented Jul 27, 2015 at 4:42
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2 Answers
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This is just a short expansion of Ernies comment (answer really) above, same reference, and the only thing I want to add is the size of the molecules, not just atoms but 58- and 114-atom molecules, made of links of carbon, hydrogen and nitrogen.
$\mathrm{C}_{60}$ Fullerene Double Slit experiment and Neutron Interference Pattern both provide details of larger sized objects being used in the Double Slit experiment.
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1$\begingroup$ See the question I linked above for links to doing it with $\mathrm{C}_{60}$ and $\mathrm{C}_{70}$ buckyballs. $\endgroup$ Commented Jul 27, 2015 at 0:21
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$\begingroup$ The virus will not be in two places at once. The probability of finding it will be different in the two places. Another tack: the probability of passing through slit 1 and the probability of passing through slit 2 have the wave nature. Nothing creepy. Try passing a basketball through a loop . A probability curve describes it. Each individual trial has a probability . It does not mean that the ball that passed the loop also hit the side. $\endgroup$– anna vCommented Jul 27, 2015 at 3:45
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$\begingroup$ I think you should add the links, because after a while comments may disappear here, whereas answers are permanent $\endgroup$– anna vCommented Jul 27, 2015 at 4:54
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Atoms do in fact have a sort of wave behavior you might say. Everything with mass does, even you! When the mass is small enough, like that of an electron or an atom, this behavior becomes more important to take into consideration. For example, when we go to look for an atom by shining light of a small wavelength on it, we can only say with a certain probability of where we think it's likely to be. This probability of where it's likely or unlikely to be found is described by a wave function. That is, a function which has different values for different locations in space.
Unlike a water wave function which might tell you the height of water at various locations, the quantum wave function lets you know how high the probability of finding the particle is at various locations.
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1$\begingroup$ correct, but one should add that the quantum effects, which is the wavelike nature of the probability of finding a particle, depend on the size of h_bar, which is a very small number. For large dimensions, masses and energies where we live and classical mechanics applies, it is effectively zero. $\endgroup$– anna vCommented Jul 27, 2015 at 3:39