I'm not looking for this forum post to lead to my complete and full comprehension of the concept. But I just want to get past my problem with the popular vehicle of explanation which is the double slit experiment.' I hit a wall of unanswered questions at a certain point in that experiment and countless attempts to get those questions answered through youtubes claiming to clarify the concept just wind up begging the questions. So I'm appealing to anyone out there who can get me past this dead end.
Questions:
1) Is the double slit experiment an actual experiment that one can conduct, shooting individual electrons through the double slit surface, or is it just theoretical?
2) If so, is there an actual surface or medium after the double slit surface that will actually show the different dispersion's of particles in either the wave interference pattern, or the particle scatter lines of the two slits?
3) Is the device that measures what occurs at the double slit, the same device necessary to see the results of the experiment, or is there either an actual physical result on the second surface visible to the eye, or a second independent measuring device that is used to see what happens on that second surface?
Magically, if the measurement device is on it sees where this particle goes through and the result is that it acts like a particle hitting the final surface in a double slit pattern. But if the measurement device is turned off, it goes back to a wave induced interference pattern.
Its here where I wind up having questions, and to me they are all no brainers, and the fact that no one ever addresses those questions is to me an almost lazy gloss over of what is obviously a necessary part of a reasonable explanation, (pardon the frustrated tone).
So here are a sample of some of the many questions I immediately need to understand and if anyone can answer them, or better yet, address the clear misunderstanding I have that is prompting me to ask these questions, even better.
So turn on the observation measurement device and goes particle.
Turn off the observation measurement device and it goes wave.
Measurement Device = MD
1) What if the MD is on, but you ignore it and pretend it is off
2) What if someone randomly turns it on or off and doesn't tell you for a string of this same experiment
3) What if you are told a red light comes on when the MD is on, but someone secretly reverses that
4) Is the MD itself interacting independently from your actual conscious observation
5) If the MD is off but you stand there and squint and convince yourself you are observing, what happens
6) What if the MD is inconsistent in its function but you are unaware of that
7) What if the MD is programmed to function correctly 99.999999999% of the time, but in the one instance that it doesn't work, it will still indicate that it was functioning, will it affect the results
I could go on and on. It just seems to me that in the face of the initial confounding results, I would face them with disbelief that it was going to wind up becoming something that I absolutely had to accept as a function of my observation, and I would begin to completely dismantle the process in the pursuit of finding the very razor fine edge between what is the absolute bare minimum of observation and what is just a hair past what does not count as observation. In that, I suspect it might begin to flesh out what in fact this 'observation' is really reliant on. But I can't seem to find anyone who has that same curiosity.
Anyone??