Re: How do you detech a photon passing through a slit?

From: FrediFizzx (fredifizzx_at_hotmail.com)
Date: 10/31/04 

Date: Sun, 31 Oct 2004 12:09:12 -0800

"Wild Gnu" <WildGnu@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:27e869fb.0410302356.29d2279d@posting.google.com...
| Hi.
|
| I'm not a physicist.
|
| I was reading Feynman's book "QED." It describes an experiment where a
| photon is fired at a wall with two slits in it with a photomultiplier
| behind it. Depending on the distance of the two slits from each other
| the probabililty that the photomultiplier behind the wall detects a
| photon is between 0 and 4% but if two detectors are placed at the two
| slits to determine whether the photon passed through slit A or slit B
| the probability that the final detector behind the wall detects a
| photon becomes closer to 2% depending on how accurate the other two
| detectors are.
|
| My question is, how can you make a device that detects a photon but at
| the same time allows it to pass through unaffected. Does the photon
| loose any energy when it passes through this kind of detector?

I do believe the only way to detect a photon is to destroy it.

FrediFizzx

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