Why don’t quantum effects occur in large objects ? double slit experiment with tennis balls
Why don’t quantum effects occur in large objects ? double slit experiment with tennis balls
The quantum physics of large things: Macro quantum effect. Why don’t tennis balls behave like quantum particles? What happens to a baseball in a double slit experiment? This experiment shows that atoms behave like waves of probability when not measured, and particles when measured. We also see that two quantum particles can be entangled, meaning that are connected through a sharing of one probability wave.
Why don’t we see these kinds of behavior in our everyday macro lives? At what point does the quantum behavior stop and classical behavior of everyday objects begin?
Scientists have shown quantum behavior through a double slit in particles as large as molecules containing thousands of atoms, but what about really large things like balls? Will we see the same kind of behavior that electrons or atoms have? No we will just see two patterns on the back wall. Why doesn’t the whole behave like the individual atoms it is made up of ?
To answer this, we have to understand some of the basics of quantum mechanics. When we shine a Monochromatic light through a double, we see an interference pattern on the other side because as the waves spreads out, This should be no big mystery. This is not quantum mechanics, this is just a property of waves. It will happen with water waves too.
In the Copenhagen interpretation, these particles are not particles – they are like wave of probabilities. The waves become distinct like particles only when they are measured. At the point at which the probability wave becomes a distinct particle is called a collapse of the probability wave. What scientists have found is that when the which-path information of any particle is measured, its probability wave collapses. For the particles to remain probability waves, their path information must remain in absolute secrecy. If at any point any kind of measurement is made, whether it seen by anyone or not, the particles become distinct and do not display wave-like behavior.