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
Posted

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.