"Well, yes and no. Yes, if the electron behaves like a wave that enters both slits at once, then you should expect wave interference and therefore the fringes should happen regardless if the electron goes through one at a time or many electrons as a wave 'all at once'. But, no, in the sense that the electron is behaving as a particle with each electron firing one by one and with each electron detection, one by one. If we treat the electron as just a particle, then this behavior is not to be expected since a random distribution would look more like a cluster with the center recording the majority of hits, and the edges having the least amount of hits."

if the electron gun jiggles enough (in say some harmonic way) with respect to the tiny size of an electron being fired from that gun then could we not expect a pseudo diffraction pattern?
also couldn't the electrons be colliding with the walls of the slits and thus be sent of course in random ways especially if the very slit apparatus itself were jiggling also?

regards, tim

• Two slit... - bruce - October 26, 2003 - 06:34 UTC
  • well then - sagefr0g - October 28, 2003 - 00:26 UTC