It turns out a single photon can interfere with itself! How can this
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Free Will 321
Newton's Rings
It turns out a single photon can interfere with itself! How can this
be? It must somehow split up and consider both the available paths
reflecting off the glass surfaces.
Now that we have these two concepts in our head, that a photon
sometimes reflects and sometimes does not, and a single photon must
consider both paths, we can ask: what tells the photon what to do?
There are only three possible answers: the light source that emitted
the photon, the pane of glass that reflected the photon or the observer
that saw the photon — me.
The first obvious place that might control the photon is the original
source of the photon; the light bulb. The photon might leave the bulb
already knowing what path to follow, whether it will be reflected and
whether that reflection will be affected by the gap between the two
surfaces in a positive or negative way. This is sometimes called a pilot
wave theory. The problem with this theory is I could insert a piece of
glass into the experiment after the photon has left the light source. This
will affect the photon but the light source could not have known my
intention in advance and told the photon what to do. Therefore, the path
of the photon is not pre-programmed by the light source.
Now our photon has left the bulb and is traveling toward the glass.
The glass has two surfaces. The photon reaches the first surface and has
to decide if it will reflect. But there is a problem. The second surface
HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_016011
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