From: John K Clark (johnkc@well.com)
Date: Fri Aug 01 1997 - 22:20:37 MDT
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Yakwax2@aol.com On Fri, 1 Aug 1997 Wrote:
>Do you get the same result if you only send one photon through one
>slot? Or do you have to send two photons through both the slots at
>different times?
One photon (or electron) never makes a smug, it always makes a nice neat
little spot on the film, regardless of how many slots you have, but the
pattern the spots build up into is very different, even if you send them
through one at a time. With one slot you just get a diffuse picture of the
slot itself, with 2 slots the points build up into a complex interference
pattern. Suppose you just send one electron through the 2 slots, record
the position of the spot on the film, destroy the entire device, build
another machine and send one just one electron through it and so on.
When you plot the position of all the little spots together, all the spots
produced by all the 2 slit machines, you will start to see an interference
pattern emerge. Don't ask how the electron even knows of the existence of
the slit it did not go through, much less is influenced by it, don't try to
make sense out of it, you can't, it's just weird.
John K Clark johnkc@well.com
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