The interference patter gets closer and closer to a set of independent peaks when you spread the slits away. There is no single point it breaks down, and the wave behavior predicts exactly the “particle behavior” you get when the slits are too far away.
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jj122@lemmings.world 3 months ago
Oh man the university ptsd as an engineer. I once asked a physics prof at what width does the split slot experiment break down, she couldn’t understand the question. All the other engineering students were nodding their heads in agreement with the question and tried to explain the question in a different way, still no idea what we were asking.
marcos@lemmy.world 3 months ago
Tar_alcaran@sh.itjust.works 3 months ago
It’s a good question, but asking it shows that the experiment was explained poorly.
The slits aren’t the reason you see an interference pattern. The slits function as two lenses, which, combined with the waves cause an interference pattern to appear on the wall.
All you need is some light in the same frequency, and something to bend it. That can be two slits, some glass, or an entire galaxy.
Of course, there are lots of conditions where you don’t get this pattern, but that’s more to do with the bars becoming too blurry to see clearly.
ChrisLicht@lemm.ee 3 months ago
What a great comment!
1rre@discuss.tchncs.de 3 months ago
That’s when considering the slits as a lens though, which they will act as at any diameter however there’s going to be a width at which the angle of approach and wavelength of the light are insignificant enough that you practically can’t tell that the slits were even there right?