When observed, the electrons act as matter, but when not observed, they act as waves?
Obviously “observed” doesn’t mean recorded on an iPhone camera, but what does it mean? Is it like if we simply know the location or the velocity of the electrons, they behave differently?
The part I’m most not understanding is why the electrons behave differently. Certainly they aren’t capable of thought and recognizing they’re being observed lol
In: Physics
In quantum mechanics observation simply means interaction with the world e.g. when the electron hits the screen behind the slits, or hits the detector infront of the slits.
Where the particle is observed is probabilistic. The schrödinger equation, which evolves with time, tells you the probability of the particle being observed at a particular location. The waves you read about are probability waves. The function has crests and troughs, it has a wavy behavior, and you can calculate the probabilities from these.
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