by steve » Sun Feb 16, 2020 6:27 pm
The double slit experiment has been described as a crucially important experiment in Quantum physics.
In the experiment, two parallel vertical slits are cut in a board, and light shone at the two slits. The two vertical slits show up a two vertical lines on a screen set up behind it. This is what one would expect.
However if the two slits are moved further together, a different pattern becomes apparent, and a series of white bars appears on the screen. This effect is known as an ‘interference pattern’, and it is caused when the wavelengths of the two bars of light interact with each other and produce this pattern. This experiment was first performed by the English physicist Thomas Young in 1801. This result convinced people that light was a wave.
The particle wave – dispute had been going on since the 17th century at the Royal Society when Dr Robert Hooke claimed that light was a wave, and Isaac Newton claimed that it was a particle.
!n 1905 Einstein discovered that if light was shone onto a metal plate, this produced electricity. This showed that light can also be particles. These were later called photons. Einstein was awarded a Nobel prize for this discovery.
These two experiments demonstrate that light can exist either as particles, or as waves. The double slit experiment also works with electrons, some atoms and some molecules.
The double slit experiment has been described as a crucially important experiment in Quantum physics.
In the experiment, two parallel vertical slits are cut in a board, and light shone at the two slits. The two vertical slits show up a two vertical lines on a screen set up behind it. This is what one would expect.
However if the two slits are moved further together, a different pattern becomes apparent, and a series of white bars appears on the screen. This effect is known as an ‘interference pattern’, and it is caused when the wavelengths of the two bars of light interact with each other and produce this pattern. This experiment was first performed by the English physicist Thomas Young in 1801. This result convinced people that light was a wave.
The particle wave – dispute had been going on since the 17th century at the Royal Society when Dr Robert Hooke claimed that light was a wave, and Isaac Newton claimed that it was a particle.
!n 1905 Einstein discovered that if light was shone onto a metal plate, this produced electricity. This showed that light can also be particles. These were later called photons. Einstein was awarded a Nobel prize for this discovery.
These two experiments demonstrate that light can exist either as particles, or as waves. The double slit experiment also works with electrons, some atoms and some molecules.