I just started my intro quantum class at university and I'm still having trouble understanding the collapse of the wave function.
1. Consider the double slit experiment with electrons. When undisturbed, the electrons form an interference pattern. Effectively, the wave passed through both slits. Is it safe to say that hitting the wall is the "measurement" that collapses the wave function? Also, is the position it collapses onto truly random?
Now consider when you detect which slit the electron passes through, forming two distinct lines. What would happen if, rather than the detector screen, you place another set of slits WITHOUT a detector a distance away? Would the interference pattern reappear? If so, how far away must it be?
2. The classic schrodinger's cat. If you left the box open so the cat can walk out, is it dead or alive? If it's alive, it may or may not walk out. If its dead, it certainly wont walk out. So long as we don't look inside the box, it should be in a superposition. But by walking out of the box, it would collapse its own superposition to being alive. If a wavefunction can't collapse spontaneously (query if this is true) then certainly it will not walk out. Therefore we can conclude it will always remain in the box. If it remains in the box forever, which is the necessary outcome of it being dead, can we conclude that it is dead? Or is this not necessarily true
1. Consider the double slit experiment with electrons. When undisturbed, the electrons form an interference pattern. Effectively, the wave passed through both slits. Is it safe to say that hitting the wall is the "measurement" that collapses the wave function? Also, is the position it collapses onto truly random?
Now consider when you detect which slit the electron passes through, forming two distinct lines. What would happen if, rather than the detector screen, you place another set of slits WITHOUT a detector a distance away? Would the interference pattern reappear? If so, how far away must it be?
2. The classic schrodinger's cat. If you left the box open so the cat can walk out, is it dead or alive? If it's alive, it may or may not walk out. If its dead, it certainly wont walk out. So long as we don't look inside the box, it should be in a superposition. But by walking out of the box, it would collapse its own superposition to being alive. If a wavefunction can't collapse spontaneously (query if this is true) then certainly it will not walk out. Therefore we can conclude it will always remain in the box. If it remains in the box forever, which is the necessary outcome of it being dead, can we conclude that it is dead? Or is this not necessarily true
