Title: Observing The Universe Really Does Change The Outcome, And This Experiment Shows How
Headings: Observing The Universe Really Does Change The Outcome, And This Experiment Shows How
Observing The Universe Really Does Change The Outcome, And This Experiment Shows How
Content: Dr. Tonomura and Belsazar of Wikimedia Commons
When we divide up matter into the smallest possible chunks that it's made of — into the stuff that can be divided or split no further — those indivisible things we arrive at are known as quanta. But it's a complicated story each time we ask the question: how does each individual quantum behave? Do they behave like particles? Or do they behave like waves? The most puzzling fact about quantum mechanics is that the answer you get depends on how you look at the individual quanta that are part of the experiment. If you make certain classes of measurements and observations, they behave like particles; if you make other choices, they behave like waves. Whether and how you observe your own experiment really does change the outcome, and the double-slit experiment is the perfect way to show how. This diagram, dating back to Thomas Young's work in the early 1800s, is one of the oldest pictures ... [+]
that demonstrate both constructive and destructive interference as arising from wave sources originating at two points: