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Darren New <dne### [at] sanrrcom> wrote:
> Warp wrote:
> > I think that the vernacular interpretation is that the single photon
> > traverses as a wavefront and interferes with itself when it passes through
> > both slits at the same time.
> Well, not really. The basic problem is people calling it an "interference
> pattern" to start with. It's not really "interference" as such, since
> there's only one particle. Calling it "interference" just encourages people
> to go looking for what wave is causing the interference.
I see a pattern here (pun semi-intended). Shooting individual photons one
at a time results in a pattern which is identical to the interference pattern
which results from shooting huge bunches of photons at the same time, a
pattern which is what one expects from a wave. But since a photon is not a
wave, it's not an interference pattern. It's just a pattern which happens
to look exactly like an interference pattern, but without being one.
And if I follow your earlier logic, the pattern looks like an interference
pattern *because* it's not an interference pattern.
--
- Warp
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