Naked Science Forum

Non Life Sciences => Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology => Topic started by: thedoc on 07/03/2016 20:50:02

Title: What impact does the act of measuring have on the double slit experiment?
Post by: thedoc on 07/03/2016 20:50:02

Shreyas Subramaniam asked the Naked Scientists:
   A lot of people seem to think that a conscious observer is what causes the wave function to collapse in the double slit experiment. Is that true or is it the act of measuring? If I just measured the electrons but didn't look at it, would the interference pattern still be present?
What do you think?

Title: Re: What impact does the act of measuring have on the double slit experiment?
Post by: chiralSPO on 07/03/2016 22:44:08

There is no requirement for a conscious observer. Whatever the electron interacts with after the slit is what "makes the measurement."

This can be a detector surface that gets hit, or a stray piece of dust between the slits and the "detector"