Along similar lines, the double-slit experiment, seems simple. Two slits let light though and you get bands where they constructively or destructively interfere, just like waves.
However I still find it crazy that when you slow down the laser and one photon at a time goes through either slit you still get the bands. Which begs the question, what exactly is it constructively or destructively interfering with?
Still seems like there's much to be learned about the quantum world, gravity, and things like dark energy vs MOND.
I had a conversation about this in HN some months back. It's a surprisingly modern experiment. It demanded an ability to reliably emit single photons. Young's theory may be 1800 but single photon emission is 1970-80.
(This is what I was told, exploring my belief it's always been fringes in streams of photons not emerging over repeated applications of single photons and I was wrong)
To get single photons, you just need to stack up enough stained glass infront of a light source. That's been acheivable for aeons (the photon will go through at random time though).
The difficult part is single photon _detectors_, they're the key technology to explore the single-photon version of Young's experiment (which originally showed that light has wave-like properties).
The most simple answer here is the "fields are real, particles are excitation patterns of fields." And that's generally the practical way most physicists think of it today as I understand it.
If I make the equivalent of a double slit experiment in a swimming pool, then generate a vortex that propagates towards my plywood slits or whatever, it's not really surprising that the extended volume of the vortex interacts with both slots even though it looks like a singular "particle."
> However I still find it crazy that when you slow down the laser and one photon at a time goes through either slit you still get the bands.
why does nobody mention the fact the photon doesnt keep going through the same hole? like why is it randomly moving through the air in this brownian way? the laser gun doesnt move, the slit doesnt move, so why do different photons end up going through different holes?
Sure, if you are smart enough. Maybe mount a small transmitter on a tree then use a directional antenna at a very low power and use the tree as a repeater.
Or use NVIS, which at least makes triangulation harder.
Not that I have to tell this crowd. Tuxpaint is free, get it from tuxpaint.org, do not buy it, do not download it as part of a "desktop". I was talking to the author, apparently it's sadly often used to trick people into buying or downloading malware.
I set up my kid, I think she was 3 or so, she started out with stamps of butterflies and the like. After awhile she looked at her hand, then mouse, then me, stared at me and said "ouch". I got a "travel" mouse that was half size or so, perfect for her hand and she loved using tux paint.
Don't forget to setup sound, preferably in stereo.
She used the hell out of it for years. One time on a call she was fascinated by fish. I printed out one of her drawings remotely while we were on the phone and she loved it.
Keep in mind the desktop env knows when you are left clicking a link or middle clicking. So on linux, usually it's left click to go to a link or middle click to open link in a new tab.
Middle click to open new tabs is compatible with middle click to paste.
In reality such features are often dropped, no settings in gnome-settings, and non default features are not tested in new builds.
So you end up googling how to get that feature back and the answer is manually navigating the config tree or using gnome-tweaks, both with large disclaimers that any changes might break your system.
No thanks, I'd rather have left click to select and middle click to paste, do we really have to involve the keyboard by default?
Similarly gnome-terminal used to have "new terminal" as the first option in the menu of a terminal. Then it got moved down to 6th item, then in the newer versions removed completely.
Sure. But it's a depreciation and there's numerous similar settings that are only available by tweaking settings manually or using gnome-tweaks. Right now nearly every linux app supports select with the left button and paste with the middle. It's fast, useful, doesn't require a keyboard, etc. Amusingly I've seen various logins block control-v, but middle click works. God forbid you use a password safe with your bank login.
When you use gnome-tweaks there's a ton of "WARNING you may break things" and of course anything off the default path is likely to receive zero testing.
Personally I find middle click to paste one of the differentiators between MacOS, Windows, and Linux. I'm pretty surprised it's not more common. I was amused the iterm2 added select without having to type control-c.
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