# Your thoghts on the quantum double slit experiment? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 1, 2013, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-thoghts-on-the-quantum-double-slit-experiment/670134 "2013-10-01T21:15:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Gateway](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/dbc845/32.png) [@Gateway](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gateway)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2013, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-thoghts-on-the-quantum-double-slit-experiment/670134/1 "2013-10-01T21:15:55Z")
What are your opinions on the double slit experiment? [![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfPeprQ7oGc) ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2013, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-thoghts-on-the-quantum-double-slit-experiment/670134/2 "2013-10-01T21:17:43Z")
I’m against it. Three slits are OK, one’s alright, but two is just a non-starter. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2013, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-thoghts-on-the-quantum-double-slit-experiment/670134/3 "2013-10-01T21:22:50Z")
It’s magnificent, breath-taking, ground-breaking, and revolutionary. It absolutely toppled an entire world-view and produced a whole new way of thinking about matter and energy. It leads to the most astonishing conclusions. Entanglement, tunneling, exclusion, virtual particle pairs (“the decay of empty space”) and a hundred others. And any one of us can perform the experiment (with light, at least, if not electrons) in the privacy of our own homes. Also, at least at the introductory level, the math isn’t that terribly hard. Any first year Calculus student can deal with the wave-form equations for an electron at rest, and even with the “tunneling” effect wave-form math. ---
**Author:** ![ZenBeam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/3ab097/32.png) [@ZenBeam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenBeam)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2013, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-thoghts-on-the-quantum-double-slit-experiment/670134/4 "2013-10-01T21:22:50Z")
That it’s not as mysterious as people think it is. ---
**Author:** ![zoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zoid/32/336_2.png) [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2013, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-thoghts-on-the-quantum-double-slit-experiment/670134/5 "2013-10-01T21:30:18Z")
It’s OK I guess. The magic kind of wears off once you’ve seen it, I mean it’s not like live strippers or anything. ---
**Author:** ![Gateway](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/dbc845/32.png) [@Gateway](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gateway)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2013, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-thoghts-on-the-quantum-double-slit-experiment/670134/6 "2013-10-01T21:43:24Z")
As a follow up - what conclusions can be drawn from it, and why do you think your views of the DSE and what it means are accurate. ---
**Author:** ![zoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zoid/32/336_2.png) [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2013, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-thoghts-on-the-quantum-double-slit-experiment/670134/7 "2013-10-01T21:45:38Z")
This is homework, isn’t it. ---
**Author:** ![GrandWino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grandwino/32/67_2.png) [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2013, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-thoghts-on-the-quantum-double-slit-experiment/670134/8 "2013-10-01T21:52:11Z")
> [@zoid](#): > > This is homework, isn’t it. Is there really any question? ---
**Author:** ![Gateway](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/dbc845/32.png) [@Gateway](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gateway)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2013, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-thoghts-on-the-quantum-double-slit-experiment/670134/9 "2013-10-01T21:54:44Z")
> [@zoid](#): > > This is homework, isn’t it. No, I’m not in school ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2013, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-thoghts-on-the-quantum-double-slit-experiment/670134/10 "2013-10-01T21:55:42Z")
> [@Simplicio](#): > > I’m against it. > > Three slits are OK, one’s alright, but two is just a non-starter. (Excepting that thou then proceed to three) Five is right out. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2013, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-thoghts-on-the-quantum-double-slit-experiment/670134/11 "2013-10-01T22:47:07Z")
> [@Gateway](#): > > What are your opinions on the double slit experiment? > > [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfPeprQ7oGc](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfPeprQ7oGc) That’s it’s a great, accessible way to point out both what we’ve learned about the nature of our reality, and how much we don’t understand. What are you looking for with your OP? ---
**Author:** ![Gateway](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/dbc845/32.png) [@Gateway](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gateway)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2013, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-thoghts-on-the-quantum-double-slit-experiment/670134/12 "2013-10-01T22:58:46Z")
> [@WordMan](#): > > That’s it’s a great, accessible way to point out both what we’ve learned about the nature of our reality, and how much we don’t understand. > > What are you looking for with your OP? In particular, I am interested in how this relates to ideas brought up in things like What The Bleep Do We Know, Abraham-Hicks, and The Secret. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2013, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-thoghts-on-the-quantum-double-slit-experiment/670134/13 "2013-10-01T23:11:34Z")
All those thing are stupid drivel. ---
**Author:** ![Asympotically\_fat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e47c2d/32.png) [@Asympotically\_fat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asympotically_fat)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2013, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-thoghts-on-the-quantum-double-slit-experiment/670134/14 "2013-10-01T23:36:36Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > It’s magnificent, breath-taking, ground-breaking, and revolutionary. It absolutely toppled an entire world-view and produced a whole new way of thinking about matter and energy. > > It leads to the most astonishing conclusions. Entanglement, tunneling, exclusion, virtual particle pairs (“the decay of empty space”) and a hundred others. > > And any one of us can perform the experiment (with light, at least, if not electrons) in the privacy of our own homes. Also, at least at the introductory level, the math isn’t that terribly hard. Any first year Calculus student can deal with the wave-form equations for an electron at rest, and even with the “tunneling” effect wave-form math. As a note, a proper quantum mechanical description of a single particle ‘passing through’ a double slit (where the double slit is modeled as a potential) is not really simple at all. I’m not sure if an exact solution exists for it. Here’s an interesting video simulation of the probability density (first part of the video) of a particle in the double slit experiment: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/jHyO0A7C86E/hqdefault.jpg "Quantum simulation 1 - double slit experiment") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHyO0A7C86E) ---
**Author:** ![Gateway](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/dbc845/32.png) [@Gateway](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gateway)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2013, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-thoghts-on-the-quantum-double-slit-experiment/670134/15 "2013-10-01T23:46:53Z")
> [@garygnu](#): > > All those thing are stupid drivel. Why? ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2013, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-thoghts-on-the-quantum-double-slit-experiment/670134/16 "2013-10-01T23:56:00Z")
The Secret is to quantum mechanics as astrology is to astronomy. (In other words: it’s drivel.) If there’s any “meaning” to the double-slit experiment, it’s that it beautifully and simply slaps us upside the head with how foreign and alien our own universe really is. So if we’re going to use the double-slit experiment to comment on fiction… well, it’s practically straight out of an HP Lovecraft story, I’ll give you that much. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2013, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-thoghts-on-the-quantum-double-slit-experiment/670134/17 "2013-10-02T00:13:51Z")
> [@Gateway](#): > > Why? Why don’t you tell us why you think those relate at all to a classic scientific experiment? ---
**Author:** ![Asympotically\_fat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e47c2d/32.png) [@Asympotically\_fat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asympotically_fat)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2013, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-thoghts-on-the-quantum-double-slit-experiment/670134/18 "2013-10-02T00:16:01Z")
> [@Gateway](#): > > Why? Because they possess the qualities of ‘stupidity’ and ‘of being drivel’. But you’ll have to buy the book, DVD and audio CD of “The quantum drivelity of stupidity” to really understand ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2013, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-thoghts-on-the-quantum-double-slit-experiment/670134/19 "2013-10-02T00:30:04Z")
The thing that mystifies me about the double slit experiment is that supposedly if you place a detector on the slits so that you can tell which slit a given photon passes through then suddenly you no longer get an interference pattern. And even more weirdly, you can alter the behaviour at the slits by choosing whether or not to observe it after it has already passed through. No link as I am on my phone, but google Wheeler’s delayed-choice experiment. What the hell is going there? ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2013, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-thoghts-on-the-quantum-double-slit-experiment/670134/20 "2013-10-02T00:34:27Z")
> [@Gateway](#): > > What are your opinions on the double slit experiment? So what are yours? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-thoghts-on-the-quantum-double-slit-experiment/670134.md?page=2)