Quantum Physics is an area that is surprising and intriguing. How did the Double Slit Experiment cause this field to burgeon?
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Introduction
Quantum Mechanics is a field that surprises many. After all, it sounds crazy to say that an electron can act as both a particle and a wave. However, after years of experimentation, these strange properties of subatomic particles could not be more accurate. One such experiment that introduced scientists to the curious field of Quantum Mechanics was the Double Slit Experiment.
What was the Double Slit Experiment?
The first Double Slit Experiment to demonstrate the behaviour of electrons was performed by scientists Clinton Davisson and Lester Germer in 1927. What Davisson and Germer did in order to uncover electron’s properties was fire a beam gun at a thin screen, which was behind another screen with either one or two slits.
Image 1: Diagram of how the Double Slit Experiment was performed (Wikipedia)
When electrons were fired through a beam gun and passed through a screen with a single slit, they acted like regular matter would, and ended up forming a thin line on the recording screen.
Due to this finding, scientists added another slit (Parallel to the first one) and fired electrons through it, assuming the same result.
However, this was not the case. When scientists fired electrons through a double slit, the screen where the electrons ended up showed an interference pattern, which is exactly what an energy wave (Not particles, like electrons) would have shown.
Image 2: Single Slit, and Double Slit Pattern of Electrons (Wikipedia)
This interference pattern baffled scientists, who could not believe that an electron could act as a particle with a single slit, and a wave when crossing through a double slit. To figure out why electrons were acting like waves, they placed a measuring device, or an “observer” near the double slit screen, to see why the electron was acting like a wave.
However, this measuring device seemed to have changed the behaviour of the electron. As a result of the observer, electrons started to act like particles again and landed on the recording screen as two straight lines, rather than as a wave pattern. To the scientists, it seemed as if the electron “knew” that they were watching!
The Double Slit Experiment’s Importance in Quantum Mechanics:
The Double Slit Experiment ultimately taught us the wave-particle duality of electrons and introduced us into an entirely new field of physics: Quantum Mechanics. Previously, scientists believed that the macro world and the quantum world behaved the same way: Through classical mechanics. However, this experiment showed that not everything was as it seemed.
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