ASMSG Scifi Fantasy Paranormal Emagazine August 2014 | Page 6

SFP Indie Issue 3

Marcha Fox
Originally Posted Here: Light Behaving Badly
Last time covered how sometimes light
behaves like a particle and others like a
wave along with how the double-slit
experiment was used to demonstrate these
properties. For example, if a steady light
comprised of numerous individual photons
hit a plate with one tiny slit to allow them
through, rather than getting a line that
matched the slit on the opposing wall it
would be spread out in a pattern that was
concentrated toward the center and fuzzy
around the edges. (See picture to right.)
When they used a plate that had two slits a
single photon would leave a dot, as
expected, but by continuing to release them
one at a time they would eventually form an
interference pattern, the same as what
resulted from a steady light source. It was as
if each photon had a mind of its own yet
collectively they would arrange themselves
in a certain pattern.

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While exactly where each photon would
arrive couldn’t be predicted, the pattern
itself could be, based on the wavelength of
the light. Thus there was a certain
probability that a photon would arrive in a
certain place, some more than others, but
which exact one would go where was
unknown.
It was apparent they couldn’t predict
exactly where a single photon would land
but if it was a