Question

Why is it, in the double-split experiment, observing the electrons changes the way they behave?

Answer 1

if i knew i would for sure get the Nobel prize....

Answer 2

i dont know wt is right wt read this if u can find yr ans in it..According to the relational interpretation of quantum mechanics, first proposed by Carlo Rovelli,[36] observations such as those in the double-slit experiment result specifically from the interaction between the observer and the object being observed, not any absolute property possessed by the object. In the case of an electron, if it is initially observed at a particular slit, then the observer/particle interaction includes information about the electron's position. This partially constrains the particle's eventual location at the screen. If it is observed not at a particular slit but rather at the screen, then there is no "which slit" information as part of the interaction, so the electron's observed position on the screen is determined strictly by its probability function. This makes the resulting pattern on the screen the same as if each individual electron had passed through both slits. It has also been suggested that space and distance themselves are relational, and that an electron can appear to be in "two places at once" — e.g., at both slits — because its spatial relations to particular points on the screen remain identical from both slit locations

Answer 3

If you look at an electron you are essentially shting photons at it. Any of these 'revealing' the electron will knock it off it's initial path.

Answer 4

ah... this the dramatic theory of the observer effect. Whatever tool we use to measure something so small and fleeting as an electron will impart some energy to that electron and alter its state.

This is mistakenly referred to as the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle which states that we cannot simultaneously know a particle's present position and its future position with any arbitrary high precision, there is instead a limit.

For your purposes, the measurement of electrons fall prey to the observer effect. k8 stated it best by saying the only tool we have today to measure the electron is a photon, which is very effective at effecting the tiny tiny electron.

When you are ready to earn the Nobel for physics, perhaps the measurement of an electron's location and motion will be found by observing the electron's effect on even smaller particles. To some particle even the electron is very big.

Answer 5

Light is needed for observation therefore light exhibit photons. These photon collide with the electrons deterring them from there original projected path. Think of the electrons gaining energy due to the collision of the photon and moving up and down energy lvls of an atom it may give a little understand why electron change their behaviour due to observation.

Answer 6

Actually, there are other ways of making an observation than by using light. A recent research team used entangled particles, sending one through the slits and the other around them... guess what happened?

Answer 7

i believe you left a little out; you need to tell them what entangled particles are. both particles must come from a parent particle. split a particle into and set them down separate the paths. set one on path one and another on path two. alter particle one and observe particle two. particle two will change just as particle one did. please note do not try this at the macroscopic level.

Answer 8

It is important also to note that even if it is not light, whatever you use to measure the system will be greater than the background energy of that observation medium, and there for cause effect on the system being measured.