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This post is part of the Quantum Physics Sequence.
Previously in series: Quantum Explanations
So the universe isn’t made of little billiard balls, and it isn’t made of crests and troughs in a pool of aether… Then what is the stuff that stuff is made of?
(Diagrams stolen from qubit.org and edited for my purposes.)
In Figure 1, we see, at A, a half-silvered mirror, and two photon detectors, 1 and 2.
Early scientists, when they ran experiments like this, became confused about what the results meant. They would send a photon toward the half-silvered mirror, and half the time they would see the detector at 1 click, and the other half the time they would see the detector at 2 click.
The early scientists – you’re going to laugh at this – thought that the silver mirror deflected the photon half the time, and let it through half the time.
Ha, ha! As if the half-silvered mirror did different things on different occasions! I want you to let go of this idea, because if you cling to what early scientists thought, you will become extremely confused. The half-silvered mirror obeys the same rule every time.
Continue reading "Configurations and Amplitude" »
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