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Quantum Mechanics The Uncertainty Principle Light Particle's

Al Mazurek III · Youtube · 20 HN points · 0 HN comments
HN Theater has aggregated all Hacker News stories and comments that mention Al Mazurek III's video "Quantum Mechanics The Uncertainty Principle Light Particle's".
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http://www.myspace.com/acorvettes
Single photons are the smallest quantities of light and, despite having no mass, have many properties in common with particles. In fact, physicists often think of photons as particles -- particles that sometimes behave like waves. Physicists sometimes describe all particles as waves -- even those with mass, such as electrons and protons -- in order to better understand certain aspects of their behavior.
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Mar 15, 2008 · 20 points, 5 comments · submitted by hhm
huhtenberg
If you don't know who Walter Lewin is, have a look here - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Lewin_Lectures_on_Physic...
foonamefoo
As the slit gets smaller the percentage of photons that are bouncing off of the walls of the slit as compared to the percentage that goes through directly raises.
yummyfajitas
True, but geometric rays of light bouncing off the walls of the slit won't broaden the beam. Similarly, the barrel of a machine gun doesn't broaden the stream of bullets coming out.

Only Heisenberg does (note, however, this is a purely classical/maxwellian use of Heisenberg).

anewaccountname
Right, but it is interesting that if the camera were adjusting it's iris due to the decrease in light, we would see the same thing without Heisenberg. The spread would be there in both cases, but would be overwhelmed in the wide-open case by all of the particles of light making it straight through. As the light intensity lowered and the iris widened to compensate, the effects of the photons bouncing off of the walls of the slit would begin to be more visible.
noonespecial
I love his old school HeNe Laser! Takes me back.
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