POV-Ray : Newsgroups : povray.off-topic : Quotable : Re: Quotable Server Time
7 Sep 2024 23:26:55 EDT (-0400)
  Re: Quotable  
From: Darren New
Date: 1 Jun 2008 18:57:06
Message: <48432942$1@news.povray.org>
Warp wrote:
>   But their simultaneous location in more than one place can be inferred
> by other side-effects. 

Nope. When you actually measure it, it's only going thru one slit.

> For example a single electron can pass through two
> slits at the same time, interfering with itself after doing so.

Not as such. Yes, you get interference patterns. No, as far as I know, 
there's no evidence to suggest it goes through both slits. Nobody is 
quite sure how it works, but there's no measurement that when you say 
"where is the thing" it ever gives you more than one answer.

That's the funky part. It *isn't* intuitive.

Indeed, there are all kinds of experiments (like closing one slit too 
close to the photon for it to know that the slit was closed, or 
something like that) that indicate that you can't treat the situation 
like the photon or electron goes through both slits at once.

-- 
   Darren New / San Diego, CA, USA (PST)
     "That's pretty. Where's that?"
          "It's the Age of Channelwood."
     "We should go there on vacation some time."


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