POV-Ray : Newsgroups : povray.off-topic : Trivial trigonometry : Re: Trivial trigonometry Server Time
9 Oct 2024 00:20:19 EDT (-0400)
  Re: Trivial trigonometry  
From: Warp
Date: 1 Dec 2009 10:59:56
Message: <4b153d7c@news.povray.org>
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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