GoodTaste
Key Member
- Joined
- Feb 19, 2016
- Member Type
- Student or Learner
- Native Language
- Chinese
- Home Country
- China
- Current Location
- China
Now suppose we repeat the experiment, this time shining lights on the slits so hat we know an intermediate point, C,through which the particle passed. (C is the position of either one of the slits or the other.) This is called "which-path" information because it tells us whether each particle wnet from A to slit 1 to B, or from A to slit 2 to B. Since we now know through which slit each particle passed, the paths in our sum for that particle will now include only paths that travel through slit 1, or only paths that travel through slit 2. It will never include both the paths that go through slit 1 and the paths that pass through slit 2. Because Feynman explained the interference pattern by saying that paths that go through one slit interfere with paths that go through the other, if you turn on a light to determine which slit the particles pass through, thereby eliminating the other option, you will make the interference pattern disappear. And indeed, when the experiment is performed turning on a light changes the results from the interference pattern, to a pattern like that! Moreover, we can vary the wxperiment by emplaying very faint light so that not all of the particles interact with the light.
Source: The Grand Design by Stephen Hawking (Chapter 4, page 130)
What is "the other option"? I can't clearly understand it. The mechanism of the disappearing of interference pattern seems clear:Turning on a light on a slit, and the light will interact with the particles that pass through the slit, and thus change the movement of the particles, making them unable to interact with the other particles that pass through the other slit in a way that forms the expected interference pattern.
I guess Feynman's "the other option" might refer to the potential/way of forming the interference pattern." I just don't understand the English phrase or expression. Could you please use more words to substitute "the other option" so that I can have a better comprehension of it?
Source: The Grand Design by Stephen Hawking (Chapter 4, page 130)
What is "the other option"? I can't clearly understand it. The mechanism of the disappearing of interference pattern seems clear:Turning on a light on a slit, and the light will interact with the particles that pass through the slit, and thus change the movement of the particles, making them unable to interact with the other particles that pass through the other slit in a way that forms the expected interference pattern.
I guess Feynman's "the other option" might refer to the potential/way of forming the interference pattern." I just don't understand the English phrase or expression. Could you please use more words to substitute "the other option" so that I can have a better comprehension of it?
Last edited:
