how do we know electrons have different behaviours depending if they’re being observed or not? What are those behaviours?

Question

how do we know electrons have different behaviours depending if they’re being observed or not? What are those behaviours?

In: 7

Answer 1

First think about what “observed” means.

We think about this as a passive activity – you don’t change the trajectory of a football by staring at it.

But on the subatomic level this isn’t true. You can’t “see” an electron, you can only measure its presence by interacting with it in some way. Prod it with a magnetic field. Bounce a photon off of it.

You can’t “observe” a subatomic system without touching it, and thus changing its behavior.

Unperturbed, an electron exists in a strange fuzzy wave state that has this bizarre ability to interfere with itself – as if it’s in two places at once.

When you touch it, this wave collapses and the electron is momentarily localized to wherever your observation point is. The self-interference disappears when you “watch”