[Physics] Video of Double Slit Experiment Observer Effect

double-slit-experimentobserversquantum mechanicswavefunction-collapse

I have been watching a lot of videos of the double slit experiment and trying to wrap my head around it.
I found examples of where the experiment has been done, however the videos cut out and only simulate the effect an observer has on it. I understand that the wave interference pattern collapses when an observer is put into play.

Is there a video that displays the observer effect in comparison to the regular double slit experiment? I would like to see how observing the particles before and after they go through the slit changes the resulting patterns.

Follow up question:

I watched this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iuv6hY6zsd0

This video demonstrates the interference pattern created by sunlight in a box. I understand that this is how light behaves (photons? Particles? I am not sure …)

Question: would it be possible to do this experiment, and somehow "measure" the light before or after it goes through the slits, to create the pattern that is created when observing?

And if not, why is that?

Best Answer

Great question! I suspect the reason you can't find videos (although I haven't looked for them myself) is because most of the videos of interference will be videos of photon interference, since that is the easiest kind of interference experiment to do. However, the only kind of measurements we can perform on photons in this experimental context are what we call "destructive" measurements: for example, you could just block off one of the two slits, and then for any of the photons that get through you will know which slit they went through... but you will be destroying the other half of the photons.

This is therefore not as compelling an illustration of the collapse of interference patterns as an experiment in which you can measure which slit the particles go through while still allowing them to pass through the slits. For this, you need to use some other kind of particles, such as electrons. This has been done, and the interference pattern indeed collapses when you measure which slit each electron passes through, but I still don't know if there is a video...