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Electron Interference
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OK. Now we're going to try an experiment. Using our two slits from before,
we're going to use an "electron gun" which shoots a steady stream of
electrons, the same particles that orbit atoms, at a sensitive screen...
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Wait a second; it's slowly building up an interference pattern, just like with
light. But that doesn't make sense. Are you sure the electrons aren't
interfering with each other as they go through the slits? Maybe the electron
gun doesn't work like a machine gun, and it shoots a bunch of electrons at
once.
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Lucky for us it does just that. Use the minus and plus keys on
your keyboard to control the speed of the gun, and slow it down a lot. Then
press your backspace key to clear the screen.
Hey! The interference lines are building up anyway! How can it do that if the
electrons are really like little bullets? What are the electrons interfering
with? This is so strange...
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