049

Double-slit experiment

Single detections, one at a time, that build into fringes.

Field

Detail

Study

049

Chapter

Quantum mechanics

Equation

P(x) ∝ |ψ₁ + ψ₂|²

What moves

N, the number of detections

Structure

Film

Colour means

which slit

Single detections, one at a time, that build into fringes.

A wall with two slits, and a screen some way behind it. From each slit a wave spreads, cyan from one and violet from the other, and where they overlap they reinforce or cancel. Then the waves go and particles arrive one by one as white dots. The first few look scattered. Hundreds later, bands appear exactly where the two waves added. Mark which slit each particle took and the bands vanish: the probabilities simply add.

Each study takes one equation and lets the computed result move.