Young's double slit experiment (part 1 - proving light is a wave)
So I've been looking at Young's double slit experiment lately on the internet as an attempt to widen my knowledge about physics on a quantum level. What better way to review what I have learnt by sharing it with my fellow readers? So Young's double slit experiment, here we go.
So Young's double slit experiment was developed by Thomas Young to prove that light acts both as a wave (electromagnetic wave) AND as a particle (the photon).
So what he did was to diffract sunlight (which he assumed was a wave) by ensuring that the gap between the slits is equal to the wavelength of the visible light spectrum. Then he double diffracted the wave using two other slits (a double slit if you will) and made it so that they will interact with each other and expressed their interaction on a detector screen.
So what came out would be this, where the peak of one wave interacted with the trough of the other wave so that they cancel each other out, causing a dark strip area. However the peak of the trough would be amplified with the peak of another wave, which would cause an amplified strip of light. This is why we have that strip of light seen on the detector screen. The detector screen can just be a piece of cardboard or a screen, which is what I'm assuming that Young did assuming that he carried out the experiment in the 1800's although now technology has enabled us to detect light concentration on the screen more easily with other monitors.
This is the difference with a single slit pattern, without any other wave interaction, and the double slit pattern, with another wave interacting with the first one.
Oh! Remember to take note that the middle section has the highest light intensity as waves get attenuated with distance and thus less light is detected.
So this proves that light is a wave, it was not until much later that it was proven to be put in a superposition as well. It's a particle as well, but how do we prove that?
Refer to part 2 for the answer.
So Young's double slit experiment was developed by Thomas Young to prove that light acts both as a wave (electromagnetic wave) AND as a particle (the photon).
So what he did was to diffract sunlight (which he assumed was a wave) by ensuring that the gap between the slits is equal to the wavelength of the visible light spectrum. Then he double diffracted the wave using two other slits (a double slit if you will) and made it so that they will interact with each other and expressed their interaction on a detector screen.
So what came out would be this, where the peak of one wave interacted with the trough of the other wave so that they cancel each other out, causing a dark strip area. However the peak of the trough would be amplified with the peak of another wave, which would cause an amplified strip of light. This is why we have that strip of light seen on the detector screen. The detector screen can just be a piece of cardboard or a screen, which is what I'm assuming that Young did assuming that he carried out the experiment in the 1800's although now technology has enabled us to detect light concentration on the screen more easily with other monitors.
This is the difference with a single slit pattern, without any other wave interaction, and the double slit pattern, with another wave interacting with the first one.
Oh! Remember to take note that the middle section has the highest light intensity as waves get attenuated with distance and thus less light is detected.
So this proves that light is a wave, it was not until much later that it was proven to be put in a superposition as well. It's a particle as well, but how do we prove that?
Refer to part 2 for the answer.
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