heh

sorry Ray, I should really take more time write my posts. The term for the r3 tensor was Matter, not mass. Still, at the time I assumed various "mass properites" were represented in the tensor so I dreamed that someday multiplying this new "matter" by a new representation for "velocity" would yield the right momentum for all particles, big and small.
 
My take on all of this:

The electron may be a nominal particle traveling through a medium.
In passing it creates a bow wave similar to that of a speedboat in water.
So the bow wave created prior to the slits will pass through the second slit, and the bow wave created after the electron passes through the slit generates a second bow wave which interferes with the first, and the effect is displayed on the 'screen.' behind the slits.
But if the electron is intercepted by a detector at the first slit it is taken out of the experiment can cannot generate the second wave.

Proposal: Cut another slit in the screen itself so the electron can pass through without impedance. The detector is placed behind the screen.
Let's employ a thought experiment and mount the double slits and screen on a pivoting arm which can swing upward and completely out of the way. With the slits and screen removed, there is a clear path from the source of the electron and the detector. The electron is thus detected as a particle.
If the slits and screen are now lowered, an interference effect ought to be created. Why not? But the electron should still be detected as a particle. Why not? Hence, both effects should be exhibited by the electron's trip.
If the electron "knows" that it is being detected as a particle and not a wave, how does it also know that the detector is turned on and operating?. If it doesn't know this, it might make a mistake (believing the detector to be operating) and not show any effect at all.
Click to expand...

Yes, the electron "knows" when you are measuring it. And what's even more bizzare: The electron "knows", even if your measurement could not have possibly affected it in any physical way.

Consider this:

We set up a double-slit experiment. We send electrons towards the slits, but we put a detector ONLY near slit #2. What do you think will happen?

Let us go through this very carefully: The only way you can have an interference pattern, is when an electron behaves as a wave and "goes through both slits at once". But there is a detector near slit #2, which detects every electron that goes through there. So no electron going through slit #2 can behave as wave, and no interference pattern is possible.

So far so good. And this is exactly what you'll see if you carry out this experiment in real life. But this raises the question: What happened to the electrons which went through slit #1?

Since there is no interference pattern, the "slit #1 electrons" obviously went through the slit as particles. But why? There is no detector at slit #1! So why are the electrons at slit #1 behave as if they've been measured and detected?

The answer is, that they HAVE been detected. We KNOW that any electron that did not show up at slit #2, had to go through slit #1. The fact that we haven't physically disturbed those electrons is irelevant. The only thing that matters, is that we've managed to extract information about these electrons.

To sum things up: When we know, the electrons "know" that we do
 
Back
Top