623
Observer
(lemmy.zip)
A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.
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I have been tryin to find an actual demostration of this experiement and it seem impossible to find. can someone sow me this experiment done on a single setup. where you have a light source, two slits a screen and an ''observer''. That swithes from interference pattern to two lines, by switching the observer on and off. I am convinced that the science is solid, in its theoric and applied aspect. but that this interpretation of it is complete bullcrap. And i am annoyed by the ''believe this cheap explanation''that is repeated and nauseam. What is the actual equipment required, wave lenghts, slit sizes. I know This is science meme sub, where is the sub where i can find an actual two slit operator?
I feel like calling it an "observer" is the worst thing since Ben Franklin decided to name positive and negative electrical charges. "Observer" implies that it's someone watching the thing, when really it's just the light interacting with something.
You can put together a version good enough for high schoolers with a laser pointer and some pencils.
To conceptualize though, it might be better to set up some sort of wave table - some sort of tub of water you set up the slits in, then observe the patterns of constructive and destructive interference. (That’s what I did with students.)
What are you trying to see exactly? There's this video done with polarizers: https://youtu.be/unCXuRXpEhs Of course, it's not an instant on/off but having an instant on/off doesn't really change anything.
Thank you. Yes something like that. with lab grade equipment would be nice. I agree instant on/off is not required for my understanding.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double-slit_experiment
Put a filter on one slit to measure the beams. Done.
Edit: this thinks about a related experiment, where you build an interferometer instead of a double slit. Now rephrase the experiment s.t. you have to beams serviced from a singular beam. interfere the two beams with each other. If you measure on one beam path (e.g. Pol filter) you destroy the interference pattern.
You don't really need an on/off switch.
By default you are not observing what slit it goes trough so you should always see the wave pattern.