Thread: Wave-Packet Collapse in Quantum Mechanics

[DISCLAIMER]
ITT we talk about Quantum Mechanics in all ways, but mostly theories explaining the collapse of the wave packet as exemplified in the Double Slit experiment, performed by Young. If you don't understand that, here's a video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfPeprQ7oGc I hope it helps.)

I have a few questions myself I was hoping could be answered.

Would the instrument they were using (I believe it was a light) to see which slit the particle was going through when being shot slowly have any gravitational pull on the particle (seeing as the particle is very small in comparison that would be of any significance?

There would be a gravitational pull, yes, but it would be negligible

Okay. Well I was messing around with a plastic cup in water, and noticed something that sparked my interest. Think of a light film of water spanning a small gap of about two centimeters in, say, a piece of plastic (much like dipping a bubble wand into a cup of soap). It can be over the whole hole as one being. But when a force is applied to that film it collapses into a single drop. I feel like the wave packet could work the same way. A force is applied to it through observation and it causes the wave packet to collapse into one spot.

what on earth is this???

I hate that video about the double slit experiment and the movie it came from even more.

is it due to interraction with another object/state of material?

i.e. the reason light takes longer to travel through glass is because it get's shooked up that makes it behave like a wave?

Originally Posted by curious mind

is it due to interraction with another object/state of material?

i.e. the reason light takes longer to travel through glass is because it get's shooked up that makes it behave like a wave?

The reason light takes longer to travel through glass is that it gets absorbed by the atoms of the glass and re-emitted after a delay.

I wonder why they always ignore single slit diffraction, as they did in the video.