Does gravity slap us into reality?

[robrecht]

I think the pattern is manifested in some way, such as putting up a screen behind the slits, that doesn't involve the detectors that you are asking about.

Wouldn't the screen then be just a less intrusive detector? At what point does the detector become an intrusive element? Thanks.

[Boxing Pythagoras]

Wouldn't the screen then be just a less intrusive detector? At what point does the detector become an intrusive element? Thanks.

The point of the Double Slit style experiments is to see through which slit the body in question passes. I'm not super familiar with how this is done for extremely large particles, like whole atoms or even molecules, but in the classical version using light, if each photon passes through only a single slit, the photons act like a beam of particles and concentrate in a single spot on the screen beyond the slits. However, if each photon passes through both slits at once, they behave in a wavelike manner, and the waves on the other side of the slit crash into each other to form an interference pattern.

Throughout the experiment, everything is performed completely identically. The laser and the slits are in the exact same position, in both cases. The only difference is that when there is nothing detecting through which slit each photon passes, they each pass through both. When there is a detector, each photon passes through only one or the other slit. This occurs regardless of whether the scientist performing the experiment is aware that the detector has been activated. He only observes the aftermath of the experiment, not the actual detection of the particles.

[seer]

The scientist isn't observing the results from the detector, but rather the interference pattern which occurs. With no detector, there is an interference pattern consistent with a superposition. With a detector, the superposition collapses and the interference pattern changes.

I still don't get this. Yes in the double slit experiment you get two different results, physical results that one can see on the background screen. So how does observing or detecting the experiment change the pattern? Where is the PHYSICAL CONNECTION. How can just looking at something change the outcome?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfPeprQ7oGc

[Boxing Pythagoras]

Here's a very good introduction to the Double-Slit Experiment which I just found on YouTube:

I still don't get this. Yes in the double slit experiment you get two different results, physical results that one can see on the background screen. So how does observing or detecting the experiment change the pattern? Where is the PHYSICAL CONNECTION. How can just looking at something change the outcome?

That right there is the central question of Quantum Mechanics.

[firstfloor]

I still don't get this. Yes in the double slit experiment you get two different results, physical results that one can see on the background screen. So how does observing or detecting the experiment change the pattern? Where is the PHYSICAL CONNECTION. How can just looking at something change the outcome?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfPeprQ7oGc

Observation or detection IS a physical process. It changes the experiment.

[seer]

Observation or detection IS a physical process. It changes the experiment.

I know it changes the results. But how does my looking at it effect it - physically touch it? Is there something shooting out of my eyes that is interacting with the particles?

[Boxing Pythagoras]

I know it changes the results. But how does my looking at it effect it - physically touch it? Is there something shooting out of my eyes that is interacting with the particles?

Again, this is the central question of Quantum Mechanics. If there were a single, definitive answer, then we wouldn't have at least a dozen different equally plausible physical interpretations of the phenomenon. There is almost certainly a Nobel Prize awaiting the scientist or team that solves this one.

[robrecht]

The point of the Double Slit style experiments is to see through which slit the body in question passes. I'm not super familiar with how this is done for extremely large particles, like whole atoms or even molecules, but in the classical version using light, if each photon passes through only a single slit, the photons act like a beam of particles and concentrate in a single spot on the screen beyond the slits. However, if each photon passes through both slits at once, they behave in a wavelike manner, and the waves on the other side of the slit crash into each other to form an interference pattern.

Throughout the experiment, everything is performed completely identically. The laser and the slits are in the exact same position, in both cases. The only difference is that when there is nothing detecting through which slit each photon passes, they each pass through both. When there is a detector, each photon passes through only one or the other slit. This occurs regardless of whether the scientist performing the experiment is aware that the detector has been activated. He only observes the aftermath of the experiment, not the actual detection of the particles.

Thanks. So it is as if the detectors prevent 'half-particles' (one part of the particle that would otherwise pass through both slits at the same time) from passing through. Is that not just an interaction between the detector and the particle? Like a sieve of some kind saying the spin or the charge or whatever unknown property there may of a particle that would otherwise go through two slits at the same time.

I know this sounds stupid to a trained scientist. Is it not somehow the mechanics of the close up detection process at the slit that is creating the change?

[Boxing Pythagoras]

Thanks. So it is as if the detectors prevent 'half-particles' (one part of the particle that would otherwise pass through both slits at the same time) from passing through. Is that not just an interaction between the detector and the particle? Like a sieve of some kind saying the spin or the charge or whatever unknown property there may of a particle that would otherwise go through two slits at the same time.

I know this sounds stupid to a trained scientist. Is it not somehow the mechanics of the close up detection process at the slit that is creating the change?

That's actually precisely what the equations are telling us. That's why we've named the field Quantum Mechanics.

The curious part is that the quanta cease acting like waves and begin acting like particles, and we still don't really know how the detection process at the slit creates the change. We only know that it does.

[seer]

Again, this is the central question of Quantum Mechanics. If there were a single, definitive answer, then we wouldn't have at least a dozen different equally plausible physical interpretations of the phenomenon. There is almost certainly a Nobel Prize awaiting the scientist or team that solves this one.

We yes, if it could be solved. And can you give me one plausible physical interpretation for how this could happen?

[Sparko]

We yes, if it could be solved. And can you give me one plausible physical interpretation for how this could happen?

Reality isn't real.

[Boxing Pythagoras]

We yes, if it could be solved. And can you give me one plausible physical interpretation for how this could happen?

The most common one is the Copenhagen interpretation. Quanta are probabilistic in nature with the probability distribution corresponding to behavior which appears wave-like. The set of all possible positions which a quantum can occupy is called its superposition. However, the act of observing a particular quantum necessarily implies knowing where that particular quantum cannot be, thereby eliminating all but one possible position from its superposition. Since there is now only one position possible for the quantum, it behaves like a particle.

[seer]

The most common one is the Copenhagen interpretation. Quanta are probabilistic in nature with the probability distribution corresponding to behavior which appears wave-like. The set of all possible positions which a quantum can occupy is called its superposition. However, the act of observing a particular quantum necessarily implies knowing where that particular quantum cannot be, thereby eliminating all but one possible position from its superposition. Since there is now only one position possible for the quantum, it behaves like a particle.

That still does not get us to the actual physical connection. How does the simple act of viewing do anything? Touch anything?

[Boxing Pythagoras]

That still does not get us to the actual physical connection. How does the simple act of viewing do anything? Touch anything?

I literally just explained it. A superposition is a set of all possible positions. Observation of the quantum reduces its set of possible positions to a single position. It is no longer possible for it to be in position B if we have observed it to be in position A. When a quantum occupies a wide superposition, it behaves similarly to a wave. When its superposition is narrowed, approaching a single position, it behaves like a particle.

[robrecht]

Are the particles or quanta in the process of constantly coming into and going out of existence?