Eli5: Why can’t the wave-like behavior of photons through a slit be explained by the photon coming too close to the edge of the slit, being influenced by gravity or the strong nuclear force of the atoms in the slit material, thus causing it to change it’s trajectory and only appear wave-like?
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Because the photon goes through both slits simultaneously. It can’t do that if it’s a particle.
You can put enough filters between the source and slits that only one photon at a time is going through. And you *still* get an interference pattern. That’s only possible if the photon is interfering with itself. And *that’s* only possible if it’s interacting with both slits at once, which a particle can’t do.
If you stick a detector on one of the slits so you *know* which slit it went through (essentially you force it to exhibit particle-like behavior) the interference pattern disappears.
Edit:typo
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