The Double Slit Experiment and reality

The double slit experiment has its bases in the wave/particle duality of subatomic particles. What is so amazing about it is that over the years it has produced results that are among the strangest in quantum mechanics. It is the king of quantum weirdness being the strangest in science. These srainge results tell us alot about the nature. The original double silt experiment used photons of light, but later versions used electrons but the results are the same The double slit experiment is actually responsible for starting Quantum Physics.
Numerous explanations have been proposed to explain the results of what on the surface is a very simple experiment. However resent experiments involving quantum erasure seem to have reduced the possibilities to being the information that is collected making the difference.

What seem to be happening is the in general subatomic particles tend to exist as wave functions that represent multiple possibilities. When specific information is measured about an event those possibilities are reduced to one producing the needed information. A new wave function of multiple possibilities is then produced consistent with that one possibility.

Putting it all together suggests that what we call reality is actually immaterial at its most fundamental level. At its most fundamental level the universe seems to be composed entirely of information. This makes it more like a sophisticated computer program than a world of material objects.

It is more than just the existence of the information the affects the experiment but its ability of it to eventually be accessed by the experimenter. That experimenter is ultimately a human being that is a conscience entity. The information that makes up reality seems to be calculated as need for a conscience entity so as to produce a consistent reality.

This shows that consciousness is a fundamental part of reality. This is not new age thought but what the observation of subatomic particles is actually telling us. It is consistent with the Biblical view of God as creator since the universe would be a result of His consciousness. It is also consistent with the Biblical view of God creating the Universe out of nothing.

Double Slit Experiment

One of the most famous experiments in physics is known as the double slit experiment it is also the most infamous. It involves shooting light or other subatomic particles likes electrons at a screen that has two slits in it. Warning things are about to get strange.

When a double slit experiment is perfumed using pure waves the result is an interference pattern. When pure particles like bullets are used they produce two lines behind the slits. But subatomic particles like photons and electrons don’t act like bullets they produce a wave like interference pattern, even when they are shot one at a time.  It seems that each of the particles goes through both slits at the same time.

To make things even stranger dose not stop there because when detectors are put in place to see which slit each particle actually goes through their behavior changes producing only the two lines like bullets would.

To make thing even stranger if the detectors are on but the data is not recorded the result is the wave like interference pattern. This suggests that it is the conscience act of observing that actually changes the result. 

Such a result is consistent with the Biblical view of God as creator. From a Biblical view point the universe would have resulted from God’s consciousness and so it should not be much of a surprise that we would find such a result.

Additional Reference

YouTube - Double Slit Experiment

Video on the Double Slit Experiment of Quantum Physics



Quantum Entanglement: Spook Action at a Distance

Quantum Entanglement is a phenomenon in which the quantum states of two or more objects have to be described with reference to each other, even though the individual objects may be separated in space. Einstein called it “Spook action at a distance”  This results in a correlation between the observable physical properties of the systems such that a change in one object causes an instantaneous change in the other.

Because of Special Relativity  it is generally thought that classical information from being sent faster than light by this means. This is because the two particles need to be near each other to become entangled, or they need an intermediate particle, which has to be near one particle and then the other. But this would not prevent  the possibility of sending information faster than light in cases where the sender and receiver were originally near each other and then separated such as s apace ship leaving Earth and using such a means for communications. Quantum entanglement is a quantum effect that has no parallel in Classical mechanics.

Superconduction which is a Quantum Effect

Superconduction is the property that occurs in certain materials below a characteristic temperature where they have an electrical resistance of exactly zero.

Superconduction was discovered in 1911 but it took years to find a theory that allowed it to be understood. When a critical temperature is reached for a particular substance the electrical resistance will suddenly drops to zero.  The basic theory is that at the critical temperature electrons become coupled over a ranger of about 1,000 X the spacing of the conductor’s lattice with a binding energy that is the result of vibration that the electrons cause in the lattice. Called cooper pairs, the coupled electrons effectively becomes a boson and condense into the ground state. The result is that each coupled electron helps the other over come any resistance encountered from the lattice.

The Meissner Effect is where a magnetic field is expelled from a superconductor during the transition to the superconducting state that is caused by electric currents generated near its surface by the applied field. The magnetic field of these currents cancels out the applied magnetic field within the superconductor. This causes the magnetic levitation associated with superconductors.

Superconductivity is a purely quantum effect that has no counter part in classical physics. It’s most commonly known effect is magnetic levitation. It is one of two purely quantum effects that are seen on a macroscopic scale.

Atoms, They Makeup Every Thing

Atoms are the basic unit of matter that consists of a dense, central positively charged nucleus surrounded by a cloud of negatively charged electrons.

The Rutherford Gold Foil Experiment was conducted in 1911 by Hans Geiger and Ernest Marsden. It Involved shooting alpha particles (He nuclei) at a gold foil to observe how they are scattered by the gold on a screen. It probed the structure of the Atom.  

If atoms were a solid mass few if any alpha particles would get through. If negative electron were embedded in a thin positive mass all of the alpha particles would get through. However most of the alpha particles get through with some being scattered by the small positive nucleus. Rutherford Conclusion was that the atoms is mostly empty space with a small positive nucleus surrounded by electrons scattered through out the surrounding space. In such a model the electron can not stand still since if they did they fall into the nucleus

This led to efforts to model the atom as a solar system called the planetary model with electrons orbiting the nucleus like planets around a star. The problem with the planetary model is that electrons are charged particles and an accelerating charge emits light loosing energy and this would cause the electron to spiral into the nucleus.

Broglie had shown that particles have wave like propertied. Bohr went on to show that these waves could be bent into orbits like those expected for an electron with the result that electrons can only occupy those orbits with exactly a whole number of wavelengths. In these orbits the waves are add together with constructive interference. If an orbit has a fractional number of wavelengths the wave would destructively interfere and not persist so an electron can not occupy such an obit. The result is that that electrons jump from orbit to orbit emitting photons when going to a lower orbit and absorbing photons are when going to a higher orbit. It turns out that transitions between the possible electron orbits, matches the spectral lines that are actually observed in hydrogen. This was a major step in development quantum Mechanics.

Studying elements other hydrogen included the effects of multiple electrons resulted in the electron orbital five of which are shown above. They are places in an atom where electrons can actually be found. The shapes of these orbitals were originally found mathematically and they have long been viewed as purely mathematical abstractions that were never expected to be seen. Physics students have long been told this however field-emission electron microscopy has changed this. he imaging of actual electron orbitals was a surprise but it vividly shows the accuracy of Quantum Mechanics.

Superfluids a Quantum Effect

A superfluid is a liquid that has no viscosity and infinite thermal conductivity.

Superfluids appears as normal liquids but flow without friction past any surface allowing it to continue to circulate over obstructions and through pores in its container do only to its own inertia.

The atoms in a superfluid all exist in the same quantum state so they all have the same momentum such that if one moves they all move allowing superfluids to move without friction even through the tiniest of cracks. Superfluid helium will flow up the sides of a jar and over the top. Superfluity is a purely quantum effect that has no counter part in classical physics. It is one of two purely quantum effects that are seen on a macroscopic scale.