Principal Sponsors
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National Science Foundation
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King Saud University seeks to become a leader in educational and technological innovation, scientific discovery and creativity through fostering an atmosphere of intellectual inspiration and partnership for the prosperity of society.
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Quantum Wave Interference
When do photons, electrons, and atoms behave like particles and when do they behave like waves? Watch waves spread out and interfere as they pass through a double slit, then get detected on a screen as tiny dots. Use quantum detectors to explore how measurements change the waves and the patterns they produce on the screen.
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Teaching Resources
Main Topics
- Quantum Mechanics
- Photons
- Electrons
- Atoms
- Particles
- Waves
Sample Learning Goals
- Visualize a photon, electron, neutron, or helium atom as a wave packet that collapses upon detection.
- Visualize what happens to the wave between slit and screen.
- Justify how the double slit experiment explains that matter and light behave as waves.
- Describe the behavior of a wave function in the presence of a detector, and explain how putting a detector over a slit destroys the interference pattern. Determine how the interference pattern will change if you change the mass, speed, or wavelength.
- Recognize large range of size scales involved in quantum interference experiments.
- Recognize that two coherent light sources can interfere, but only if they have the same wavelength.
Tips for Teachers
The teacher's guide (pdf) contains tips created by the PhET team.
Teaching Ideas
| Title | Authors | Level | Type | Updated |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Visualization and Visual Illusions SIM Homework
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Kathy Perkins, Carl Wieman | UG-Intro | HW | 1/9/11 |
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Probability and Randomness Interactive Lecture
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Sam McKagan, Kathy Perkins, Carl Wieman, and Noah Finkelstein | UG-Adv UG-Intro |
Demo CQs |
1/9/11 |
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Wave Particle Duality
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Sam McKagan, Kathy Perkins, and Carl Wieman | UG-Adv UG-Intro |
HW | 4/20/10 |
| The Two-Slit Experiment | Roberta Tevlin | HS | CQs Demo HW |
5/19/08 |
You can submit your own ideas and activities.
Translated Versions:
Software Requirements
| Windows | Macintosh | Linux |
|---|---|---|
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Microsoft Windows
XP/Vista/7 Sun Java 1.5.0_15 or later |
OS 10.5 or later
Sun Java 1.5.0_19 or later |
Sun Java 1.5.0_15 or later |
Credits
| Design Team | Third-party Libraries | Thanks To |
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