In a double-slit experiment, what exactly is the result when a single electron passes though ?

Question

I ask because I am not very clear.. Further questions are:

- Does the result change when the experimenter is observing which slit the electron passes through ?

Answer 1

Excellent question.

I know you know what the double-slit experiment is, so there is no need to talk through the whole deal... but i want to make sure that some points come across correctly.

particles and waves are the same thing, just viewed from a different perspective. The reality of this concept was not discovered until the double-slit experiment. When waves of energy (or matter) interact with one another, an interference pattern emerges. This pattern is shown as a wave of energy moves through two or more slits and creates a pattern of dark and light lines on a remote recepticle. There are more lines than there were slits because the energy moved through as a wave and interacted with different elements of itself.

The strange thing is that when you push through a single electron through a double slit, it behaves the exact same way as a wave of energy interacting with itself - but it is just a single electron! Of course this experiment is measured over time, allowing the electrons to hit the recepticle and show up as tiny dots. Over time, the dots will emerge as lines, where there are places where there is a dense concentration of light (the dots) and places where there are no dots at all (the dark).

Scientists believe that somehow the electron is interacting with different dimensions, or that the electron is conscious - both strange new concepts for science.. I have my own ideas - which i will detail further down in this post.

When the observer watches the entire experiment as a whole, the interference pattern emerges. When the observer moves in and puts a probe near one of the slits to examine just what is happening.. guess what happens? The electron moves through just that hole, and only one band of light appears on the recepticle. It's as if the electron "knew" what was happenening.

The electron is commonly descibed as a particle when using a single slit, but when using more than one slit, the particle is described as a wave-form.

In my opinion - I believe that the all elements of the universe exsits with an infinate number of variations of itself already contained within it's own system. When an outside system itneracts with an observed system, the outside system "chooses" one of those infinate variations to represent reality. A certain limit of choice is put on which variation can represent the current reality- this limit is based on the complexity and influence of the observed system. This may not seem like it is infinate because there is a "limit" placed on what can display, but that limit is based on the observer's current system alignement and perspective.

When we move down to the tiny, micro-scale of the universe, things like this come into effect. that electron exsisted with all possible variations of itself, and when it was forced to behave like a single element, a limit is placed on the electron's system - forcing it to display in one of those marker lines. When the level of complexity and influence of the observer increases (when the observer chooses to look at just one slit), the electron's system is further limited to just one slit. the observer is actively choosing the reality for that element.

Hope that answered your question :) www.youtube.com/gooboberti. It will take me a little while to post better videos.. i have many concepts I want to push out to the world.. so just stay tuned.