• Question: describe how the double slit experiment in quantum physics work?

    Asked by honeysucklebutterlips to Alex, Amy, Andy, Georgia, Ollie on 16 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Andy MacLeod

      Andy MacLeod answered on 16 Jun 2011:

      This is one of them “physics” things, isn’t it? Might be better asking a physicist. From the top of this lowly geneticist’s head: put a barrier with two slits in front of a light source, and let the waves pass through them. The interference pattern at the other side proves that light has wave-like properties.

      I could probably look it up in more detail on the internet, or even in “books”. But I’m sure you could too. 😉

    • Photo: Georgia Campbell

      Georgia Campbell answered on 16 Jun 2011:

      Like Andy said, you’re probably better off asking a physicist for this one! I’m pretty sure it is shining light on a plate with two slits and looking at the pattern this causes on a screen behind the plate though – if you cover one slit, it shows a certain ‘diffraction’ pattern, and if you cover the other slit the ‘diffraction’ pattern chages. If you leave both slits open, the pattern is more than just the combination of the individual slits though – showing that light behaves as a wave.However, if you fire just one ‘photon’ of light at a time, it moves in a stright line through a slit, behaving as a particle. So, the double slit experiment shows that, at a quantum level, light behaves as a wave AND as a particle – pretty cool! 🙂

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