1. Young’s experiment: wave/particle duality.
In 1808, the physicist Thomas Young designed an experiment in which he tried to identify the behavior of light. To do this, he shot a beam of light towards a metal plate with a double slit. In order to have a tangible record of the experiment, he placed a screen, where the impacts of the photons were drawn. When checking the behavior of the particles, he realized that they had generated an interference pattern, similar to the one created by pond water when we drop a stone on it. That is, the light had behaved in the form of a wave. When they wanted to verify this result, performing the experiment again (this time with the presence of an observer), they realized that light stopped behaving like a wave, and had behaved like a solid particle, similar to a marble. The conclusions of his study made clear one of the main characteristics of mechanics: the wave / particle duality. Light behaves like a wave when we are not looking at it, and like a particle in the presence of the observer. That is, our observation determines the behavior of photons.
Although originally the experiment was carried out only with light (photons), nowadays it can also be carried out with electrons, protons or neutrons.
2. Feynman interpretation.
In a discussion of the earlier experiment, Feynman realized that the particle does not have a definite position during the time it travels to the screen behind the double slit, and that this is not to be interpreted as the particles taking no path. as they traveled towards the screen, but rather as if they were taking all possible paths between the two points at once. This means that the particles not only take all the paths, but they take them instantly.
Therefore all possibilities are feasible, until the influence of the observer makes one of them materialize.
If we extrapolate this fact to our daily life, we realize that there are also multiple possibilities in it. The experiences we have are influenced by the effect of our observation, and it is ours that dictates the final result of any event.
3. De Broglie hypothesis.
Louis De Broglie, a French physicist, questioned whether a material particle could also show wave behavior. His research indicates that every physical entity has a dual nature, in such a way that its global behavior presents two complementary aspects: wave and corpuscular. Therefore, the equation proposed by de Broglie can be applied to all matter. In other words, macroscopic bodies also have a wave associated with them, but since their mass is so great, the wavelength is so small that it is impossible to appreciate their wave characteristics.
This means that the observer’s influence on the wave/particle duality is a general quality of matter regardless of the size of the object to be measured. In any case, our way of perceiving the world shapes the reality that we call life.
When we change our way of interpreting the environment, our reality is transformed. Any change in our life begins with an inner change. As Enric Corbera says: “The world we see is the world we want to see, our way of observing the world will determine future events that will affect our relationships.”
“You must be the change you want to see in the world”.
Mahatma Gandhi.
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