The World Around Us

The world around us appears so simple and natural to the naked eye. But one thing which blew my mind was the infamous double slit experiment. The double slit experiment explains the behavior of electrons around us. The importance in it is we know every sort of life form and object is made from atoms and every atom has an electron in it. So the behavior of electron has an effect of every single object including all life forms on earth.

The Wave-Particle duality of electrons is what is proven by the following experiment.

The Double Slit Experiment.

Single Slit.

We all know what happens when tiny particles are shot through a single slit. The expected outcome is shown by the following image.

Image 1

Image 2

As shown in image 1 when particles are fired through a single slit the pattern of the observation is clearly shown. In image 2 we can see a beam of light travelling through the slit and that observation also enforces the effects of how particles behave when travelling through a single slit. When making this observation we should not forget that light is a particle, not a wave.

Now lets look at the effects of a a wave travelling through a single slit. The apparent observation is shown below.

As we see above when a wave travels through a single slit the behavior of the wave is different from the behavior of a particle. This helps us find out the difference between a behavior of a wave and a particle through a single slit.

Double Slits

Now lets upgrade the experiment. Lets use 2 slits instead of 1. When a beam of particles are fired through a double slit the following observations can be made.

When the particles are fired through the double slits we can see two bands of particles as shown in the images above. This also proves how particles behave when travelling through any number of slits.

But when it comes to waves, the outcome is pretty interesting. When a wave travels through a double slit we can see the following observation.

The above observation occurs because when 2 waves collide some parts of the wave adds up and is shown by the bright white bands while some parts of the 2 waves cancel out leaving the dark band. This is the apparent effect of when a wave travels through 2 slits how the 2 ripples coming from each slit collides and certain parts add up and certain parts cancel off.

So now we know how particles travel through a single slit and a double slit and also how a wave acts when travelling through a single and double slit. The noteworthy point of a wave travelling through a double slit is that it shows an interference pattern (adding up and cancelling off) .

Now lets miniaturize this experiment and go to the quantum world. The same experiment above was done by using electrons. Now we know an electron is a particle. So when we fired the electron beam through a single slit the expected results were apparent as follows.

The electrons reacted as predicted by the above experiments. The behavior of the electron proved that its a particle not a wave.

Now comes the most controversial part of the experiment. The Electron beam is now fired through double slits.

THE ELECTRON BEAM BEHAVED AS A WAVE !!! by observing the above image the predicted outcome is the electrons to form 2 bands parallel with the slits as the normal particles behave. But the electron beam behaved like a wave when travelling through double slits. This confused the physicists and they came up with an explanation.

They told "Oh then the electrons in the beam must be colliding with each other which gives this wave effect" So the physicists set up the experiment but instead of firing a beam of electrons, they fired one electron at a time so there is no way that an interference would occur like a wave due to collisions between electrons. But STILL the interference pattern occurred. Physicists always thought the electron was a particle. But when travelling through double slits the electron behaves like a WAVE!!!
Then to make sure what really goes on the physicists setup a device so they can monitor what exactly happens near the slits to each and every electron. But the physical world is far more mysterious than they ever imagined. The experiment was carried out with the device to observe the behavior of the electron near the double slit.

The outcome was the electrons DIDN'T behave like a wave. The electrons behaved like normal particles would do when shot through a double slit (2 bands occur parallel to the slits) ... When the observing device was removed then the electron started to behave like a wave AGAIN. This is the birth of Wave Particle duality. The electron knew when the humans observed its actions carefully. Then the electron behaved like a particle travelling through double slits. But when the observation device was removed the electron behaved like a wave. So we can say every electron when not observed behaves like a WAVE , as if the electron knew when it was observed by humans. So we can see what effects humans have on electrons.

Which means we should know if a group of people observes a student and if they think "this person will do great in his studies", that positive energy would affect the student and his life to a certain extent and vice versa. This is the birth of Quantum theory. And we see how some facts are simply amazing in our universe and the deepest mysteries of it !!!