• underisk@lemmy.ml
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    8 months ago

    It’s just proof that light behaves as a wave, because it generates an interference pattern like the first picture. The second picture is how it would theoretically behave if it was (only) a particle, which it isn’t. The proof that light acts like a particle comes from a second experiment proposed by Einstein dealing with the photoelectric effect.

    This article is meant for kids but it explains things pretty plainly. The duality is unexplained, but the experiment is well understood.

    • Björn Tantau@swg-empire.de
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      8 months ago

      It actually does behave like a particle in this experiment if you use a measuring device to see which slit it went through. It’s also enough to turn the heat up in the room. Then random air molecules take on the role of a measuring device.

      • underisk@lemmy.ml
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        8 months ago

        Yeah, if you alter the experiment to try and prove duality then of course you can do that because light is both. The classic double slit experiment, as commonly understood and illustrated above, just proves the wave part though. You’re not going to see just two lines from shining a flashlight through a couple holes.

        • Björn Tantau@swg-empire.de
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          8 months ago

          The illustration above explicitly shows someone “looking” at the slits, implying the use of a measuring device.

          • underisk@lemmy.ml
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            8 months ago

            Eyes are a measuring device and using them here would not result in two lines. Using a different measuring device produces a different result. Nothing I’ve said is counter to anything you’ve said. The image is a joke, not a real experiment.