I think the meme is just poking fun at the physics behind the whole thing, but in case anyone doesn’t know:
It’s called the observer effect, and it happens because:
This is often the result of utilizing instruments that, by necessity, alter the state of what they measure in some manner.
And particularly in the double-slit experiment:
Physicists have found that observation of quantum phenomena by a detector or an instrument can change the measured results of this experiment.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Observer_effect_(physics)
So for anyone who wants to have a surface understanding of the observer effect, the wiki does a fair job of the basic explanation.
The meme is not about the observer effect or wavefunction collapse
Super curious, and promise not to argue. What, in your summation, is the meme about?
This meme is about the difference in scales. When your electron’s delocalization is much greater than other scales in your system, the electron behaves like a wave. Otherwise if the electron’s delocalization is the smallest scale, it behaves like a particle.
If you can look at the setup of an experiment with your bare eyes, the electron behaves like a particle. If you cannot - it may behave like a wave.
You can see wave properties from a double slit setup with your bare eyes. Here’s someone who did it with a cardboard box.
https://youtu.be/Iuv6hY6zsd0?si=TIlEJa4AJQhh8da4
If you setup a detector that measures which path the particles took, the interference pattern disappears- again something you can see with your bare eyes.
For electrons you can’t do it. Either way the interference is not a quantum effect and the detector that you are talking about is a simple reemiting device that detects the wave vector and creates the wave in the same direction. Now live with that.
For electrons you can’t do it.
Why are you giving me a theoretical paper? It doesn’t even have sizes, but I assume that the distance between two holes is about 1um, which you cannot see with your bare eyes
https://www.hitachi.com/rd/research/materials/quantum/doubleslit/index.html
So bacteria don’t exist either because you need a microscope to see them?
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Yeah 😞
Petulant electrons, I guess.
Yeah it is. From that wiki article:
A notable example of the observer effect occurs in quantum mechanics, as demonstrated by the double-slit experiment"
The meme is not about the double slit experiment
Look, I’m not gonna keep quoting Wikipedia at you until you get it, so believe what you want I guess
Edit: see also the title of the post
It is clearly titled “double slit”.
Yep, the observer it is not only observing, it is interacting in order to measure.
