Let us explore what happens if we try to follow a particle. It is somewhat disquieting to think that you cannot predict exactly where an individual particle will go, or even follow it to its destination. Those who developed quantum mechanics devised equations that predicted the probability distribution in various circumstances. There is a certain probability of finding the particle at a given location, and the overall pattern is called a probability distribution. After compiling enough data, you get a distribution related to the particle’s wavelength and diffraction pattern. However, each particle goes to a definite place (as illustrated in Figure 1).
The idea quickly emerged that, because of its wave character, a particle’s trajectory and destination cannot be precisely predicted for each particle individually. The overall distribution shown at the bottom can be predicted as the diffraction of waves having the de Broglie wavelength of the electrons.Īfter de Broglie proposed the wave nature of matter, many physicists, including Schrödinger and Heisenberg, explored the consequences. Each electron arrives at a definite location, which cannot be precisely predicted. The building up of the diffraction pattern of electrons scattered from a crystal surface.
0 kommentar(er)
