In the basic version of this experiment, a coherent light source such as a laser beam illuminates a plate pierced by two parallel slits, and the light passing through the slits is observed on a screen behind the plate. The wave nature of light causes the light waves passing through the two slits to interfere, producing bright and dark bands on the screen—a result that would not be expected if light consisted strictly of particles. However, the light is always found to be absorbed at the screen at discrete points, as individual particles (not waves), the interference pattern appearing via the varying density of these particle hits on the screen.[1][2] This result establishes the principle known as wave–particle duality. Furthermore, versions of the experiment that include particle detectors at the slits find that each bit of light passes through one or the other slit (as particles would), but not through both (as waves would). Other particles such as electrons are found to exhibit the same behavior when fired toward a double slit. Additionally, the detection of individual particles is observed to be inherently probabilistic, which is inexplicable using classical mechanics.[3]
Posted on: Thu, 19 Sep 2013 06:02:02 +0000
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