To study this, a laser beam is arranged directly behind the slits.
Since an electron is a particle, it should be possible to monitor which slit or slits it travels through. When electrons pass through one by one, the same pattern is observed. When a beam of electrons passes through the slits, an interference pattern is produced. What happens when an experiment is set up to observe the dual nature of an electron?įirst, reconsider the double-slit experiment where there are two closely-spaced apertures. Unfortunately, it is not possible to witness the electron being both a particle, with a defined location, and a wave, with a known velocity or momentum, at the same time. So, an electron has both wave- and particle-like characteristics. But it also behaves as a wave, with velocity v, as demonstrated by the de Broglie relation. An electron is a subatomic particle with mass, m.
