Question

Explain how the modern double-slit experiment showed different results than Young’s double-slit experiment.

Answer 1

The modern double-slit experiment, performed with individual particles, showed that particles can exhibit wave-like behavior and interference patterns, similar to Young's double-slit experiment with light waves.

Step-by-step explanation:

The modern double-slit experiment, also known as the quantum double-slit experiment, showed different results than Young's double-slit experiment because it was performed with individual particles, such as electrons or photons, rather than light waves. In Young's experiment, light passed through two slits and created an interference pattern on a screen. However, in the modern experiment, when individual particles were sent through the slits one at a time, they behaved like both particles and waves, creating an interference pattern over time.

This deviation from classical physics, known as wave-particle duality, demonstrates the dual nature of particles at the quantum level. The experiment showed that particles, such as electrons, can exhibit wave-like behavior and interference patterns similar to those observed in Young's experiment with light waves. This experiment played a crucial role in the development of quantum mechanics and our understanding of the fundamental nature of particles.

Answer 2

Modern:

Where there are two open slits, the resulting pattern will simply be the sum of the two single-slit patterns (two vertical lines). But again and again, the experiment demonstrated that the coherent beams of light were interfering, creating a pattern of bright and dark bands on the screen.

Young's

In the end, the double slit experiment discovered that electrons, and all quantum particles, both exist as particles and probability waves. Quantum particles existing as probability waves means that we don't know for certain where these particles are, we can only know the probability of where they will be.