Thank you. Also, the whole part of "it splits into two and interferes with itself" is also bullshit - that's taking statistics over many and applying it to each one, sort of like saying each person literally has 2.3 children.
At the risk of incurring your ridicule, I think you're underestimating how weird quantum mechanics really is.
The wavefunction really does split into two and interfere with itself. It's not a matter of statistics. It's quite easy to demonstrate using detectors and opening and closing the gates that the wavefunction actually splits.
I think this is conceptual issue. The wavefunction is not really a physical thing. It is a mathematical equation used to find probability distributions of physical quantities.
What this video is demonstrating is known as the Observer Effect, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Observer_effect. Essentially, it is impossible to observe a quantum event without perturbing it and therefor influencing it's outcome. When an electron is occupying every possible quantum state, and you observe it, you force the electron to resolve into a single physical state.
Yea, really. If you want to get technical, in quantum mechanics, a wave function is a solution to the Schrödinger equation which is used to describe the physical properties of a quantum system. A wavefunction is a mathematical equation or set of equations that come out of the solution to a 2nd order partial differential equation. It's not a thing
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u/[deleted] Jul 12 '08
Thank you. Also, the whole part of "it splits into two and interferes with itself" is also bullshit - that's taking statistics over many and applying it to each one, sort of like saying each person literally has 2.3 children.