Science | Physics | Education
Make It Simple — The Double-slit Experiment (Quantum Mechanics)
The famous double-slit experiment explained in an easy-to-understand way
The double-slit experiment is one of the most famous experiments in quantum mechanics, yet it is described in a way that makes it hard for most people to even understand what is going on or why it’s so important.
But behind the complex science talk hides a very interesting “paradox” which I’d like to share with the reader. So let’s make it simple and take a look at what it is that got scientists so interested in shining a light through two slits.
Light waves vs. light particles
As you know from physics class, light consists of photons. You can look at photons like particles or really, really small balls. Light, however, is a wave, with different wavelengths for different colors.
And lightwaves behave much like waves in the water too. They can interfere with each other. If you shine a lightwave through two slits, the wave breaks up into two distinct waves that propagate from each slit.
Where they cross, the light becomes stronger. In other places, the beams cancel each other out. If shined onto a…
