I Pioneered Scientific Magic - Chapter 509 (Patreon)

Chapter 509: The Terrifying Double-Slit Interference Experiment

After Lynn announced the end of the seminar, the wizards who left the exhibition hall were still unable to recover from the debate over wave-particle duality.

"Do you really think wave and particle natures can coexist?" "That's absurd, how can something be both continuous and discrete?"

"This comes from Lynn Maxwell, the Star of Magic himself. Who would dare to discredit themselves in front of thousands at a seminar without full confidence?" Raphael interrupted the ongoing debates, trusting deeply in the Star of Magic’s research.

"So what if he is the Star of Magic? Even renowned figures can make mistakes," sneered a great wizard from the empire. Everyone has their flaws.

Optics has only been established for a little over a year, and no one can claim to fully understand it yet.

Compared to the general debates among wizards, Anthony stared at the disclaimer in his hand for a long time in silence.

The content was very brief, simply stating that the signee voluntarily assumes all consequences of listening to quantum theory, but... the implications were chilling.

"Teacher, should we sign it or not?" Flora hesitated to ask, her face showing a trace of concern.

She didn't have the firm belief that Anthony did, and had already lost the ability to perceive charge, deeply understanding the concept of a "spell block," which made her somewhat hesitant.

"Sign, of course we should sign!" Anthony said decisively.

He believed his research was absolutely correct; light is a wave, and it is an electromagnetic wave!

Anthony's fingertip lit up with a glow of magic, using it as ink to sign the disclaimer, then handed it to Flora to take to Lynn.

"Yes, Teacher!" Seeing Anthony’s resolve, Flora no longer hesitated. She signed her own disclaimer and then returned to the exhibition hall with both documents.

Once Flora left, Anthony closed his eyes and after about two or three seconds, he exhaled deeply, visibly relaxed... He was still able to use lightning magic, which was very good, indeed.

Meanwhile, Flora, who had gone to see Lynn Maxwell, ran into difficulties, as there were simply too many seeking the Star of Magic.

There were those like Raphael, who had good relations and specifically came to discuss photoelectric theory, some who brought lavish gifts hoping to curry favor with the new council chair, and those like them delivering disclaimers, creating complete chaos! Lynn, naturally, would not spend his time on these visitors, claiming he was busy preparing experimental equipment and closed his doors to all, including other council chairs—dismissing them with copies of his research manuscripts.

Microscopic and macroscopic theories were completely different. Explaining them one by one was not only time-consuming and laborious, but the other party might not even understand, so it was better to discuss them together at tomorrow’s academic seminar to avoid having to explain repeatedly.

Jonny and Elok stood at the door, apologetically informing everyone seeking an audience that Council Chair Lynn was preparing for the seminar tomorrow, and they accepted their disclaimers.

Their efforts allowed Lynn inside the room to focus on how to launch particles.

Initially, his goal was to replicate the Federation's micro-particle extractor using alchemy, but after half a month's effort, he found the device too complex, even with his ability to manipulate at the atomic level.

It was normal to think about it, this device not only used strong magnetic fields but also involved quantum technology...

So Lynn had to consider some relatively ancient methods—like a thermionic emission electron gun!

...

The night passed in a blink.

Not many had a good night's sleep that evening.

Fortunately, being wizards, staying up all night wasn't a big deal. Sometimes, to focus on a spell, fighting through several days and nights was quite normal. Nearly everyone had arrived early in the morning, filling the large auditorium.

Anthony also arrived, scanning the rows of seats in the large hall, about thirty percent of which were empty. It seemed that not many were deterred by the disclaimer.

But it made sense, as the debate about the nature of light was to be settled today. Any wizard with a thirst for knowledge wouldn’t miss this chance.

And those who had backed out, Anthony scoffed at; losing the conviction to pursue truth meant their path in magical studies was likely at its end.

Around eight o'clock in the morning, all the council chairs had also arrived, Lynn included, and even had Elok and others carry out his experimental equipment.

“Isn’t that my double-slit interference experiment?” Jeffrey exclaimed in surprise.

Anthony and others recognized it too; after all, the two were very similar.

Each had a launcher on the left, a barrier in the middle, and a photosensitive screen on the right.

Amid the murmurs of the crowd, Lynn nodded. “Yes, this is the double-slit interference experiment, precisely speaking, I’ve made certain modifications to it!”

“The device on

 the left, I call it a thermionic emission electron gun, consisting of a filament, cathode, grid, anode, and deflection coil...”

Lynn waved his hand, precisely cutting open the casing without damaging the internal structure, then began explaining its working principle to the audience.

The so-called filament was not made of fire-lion fur but tungsten wire, which converted electrical energy into heat when electrified, heating the cathode to emit a large number of electrons.

These electrons were blocked by the grid, and by adjusting its position relative to the cathode, the amount of electrons that could pass through was controlled. Finally, they were accelerated by the electric field produced at the anode, with their direction adjusted by the deflection coil, and then emitted one by one.

Lynn’s explanation was very professional; many of the terms were too technical for the wizards present, but fortunately, they understood the last part—the Star of Magic had found a way to launch single electrons and was prepared to use it for his experiment.

“But... shouldn’t it be photons?” a young witch muttered softly.

Her voice was light, but every wizard present had sharp hearing.

Lynn rolled his eyes; launching single photons was more troublesome than electrons.

“No matter, it’s all the same!” Lynn said with a smile. Both were quantum particles, exhibiting quantum phenomena.

After explaining briefly, Lynn looked at the audience again and spoke. “My experiment is simple. Through the electron gun, electrons are shot one by one into the double slits, and their distribution can be observed on the special fluorescent screen behind...”

“What do you think will happen if particles pass through the slits one by one?” Lynn suddenly asked.

The wizards pondered for a moment, and soon came to a conclusion. Glenn was the first to speak up. “It should form images like pinhole imaging, casting corresponding images on the back!”

“Let's see then!” Lynn neither agreed nor disagreed with Glenn's words, simply starting the thermionic emission electron gun as everyone watched, the tungsten wire heating up...

In the invisible microscopic domain, one accelerated electron after another crashed towards the front.

Because the slits were very fine, it wasn't easy for the electrons to pass through, and most of them hit the barrier.

After about five seconds of waiting, Harof spoke gravely. “It went through!”

Alade and others widened their eyes, staring intently at the photosensitive screen behind the barrier, then noticing a barely discernible tiny dot that suddenly lit up.

This meant that Lynn’s thermionic emission electron gun had successfully shot a single electron onto the special photosensitive screen behind.

As time ticked by, more and more light spots appeared on the screen, becoming increasingly dense, but not forming two slit images as they had imagined. Instead, the light spots were mainly distributed across nine bar-shaped areas... There were light spots in other areas too, but far fewer.

“This is... this is an interference pattern?!” Anthony stared at the scene, his face full of astonishment.

The rest of the wizards were equally incredulous, even a few great wizards in the front row couldn’t help but move closer to confirm that this wasn’t an illusion, and their eyes weren’t playing tricks on them.

“Strange, why is it like this?” Victorio furrowed his brow, murmuring to himself.

“Hahaha, the particle theory is correct, my particle theory is correct!” Sanchez shouted excitedly, proving that particles could also exhibit wave phenomena!

“Fool!” Anthony directly interrupted Sanchez’s words. “If the electrons really passed through the slits one by one, then what influenced their trajectory?”

Sanchez’s laughter stopped abruptly, clearly realizing this point too. His previous particle scattering experiment had been successful due to the sheer number of particles, simulating wave-like paths by causing particles within two exploding elemental groups to collide with each other.

The situation now was different, with electrons passing through the slits one by one. Normally, they shouldn’t be influenced at all, yet in reality, these electrons deviated from their original paths.

It was as if some mysterious force was causing these electrons to land on these specific points along wave-like paths.

A chill ran up Sanchez’s back, wondering what was influencing these microscopic particles.

“Could it be that the electron gun is faulty, and it’s actually firing many electrons at a time, not just one...” a great wizard suddenly thought of this, but under the scrutiny of other wizards, his voice grew fainter, then he fell silent.

After all, this was openly questioning the Star of Magic’s experiment.

Yet it seemed a plausible explanation to many; if many electrons passed through the slits and then influenced each other...

Although this was a far-fetched guess and couldn’t explain why the photosensitive screen only lit up one light point at a time, nor why the electrons exactly followed a wave-like trajectory, it was still a kind of explanation.

“Since everyone has doubts, why don’t you all enter the

 magic net, and I’ll ‘show you’ directly?” Lynn said with a smile, then released the magic formula he had recently developed to connect to the magic net.

This was a very simple psychic magic, not difficult to master, and anyone at the official wizard level could use it.

Within a few minutes, the wizards in the auditorium had mastered this magic.

The reminder tone in his mind rang out as more and more people connected to the magic net.

Even though most wizards had just connected to the magic net and could mobilize very little computing power, the sheer number still ‘supported’ Lynn...

His psychic level also rose from seven to eight.

His soul strength was struggling to keep up with the rapid increase in computing power.

Lynn took a dozen seconds to adapt, then expanded his domain to encompass the entire auditorium, linking everyone present under the magic net, temporarily giving all wizards the ability to perceive electromagnetic fields.

At the same time, within a tenth of a second, the thermionic emission electron gun fired ‘one’ electron again.

Glenn, who was closely watching the experiment in the front row, instantly felt the disturbance in the electromagnetic field. This disturbance was very slight, but with the massive computing power provided by the magic net, it was incredibly clear.

This ‘electron’ was lucky enough to pass through the right slit and hit the photosensitive screen, and the corresponding position on the screen lit up with a fine light point.

“Really, really just one electron!” Anthony was extremely puzzled. Although they hadn’t actually seen or sensed the electron itself, they observed its approximate trajectory through the disturbances it caused.

The particle indeed traveled in a straight line, and the light points that lit up on the photosensitive screen were solid evidence.

But why then did those strange, wave-like interference patterns appear?

Like Anthony, the wizards who were puzzled all focused intensely; they wanted to witness firsthand what was affecting the electron’s trajectory.

The thermionic emission electron gun kept firing non-stop, and under the ‘close watch’ of Anthony and others, every lucky ‘electron’ accurately passed through one of the slits, its path unaltered.

What about the promised deflection?

If this continued, how were the interference-like light points formed?

Anthony’s expression grew increasingly puzzled when suddenly a shout erupted in the auditorium.

“Look, the photosensitive screen... the photosensitive screen... it’s changed!”

Anthony’s pupils constricted as he noticed that somehow, the pattern on the screen had gradually shifted from nine stripes to two...

Seeing this, even Harof, Victorio, and Aurora could hardly sit still, their six eyes glued to the changing photosensitive screen, then turning towards Lynn, who was still sitting calmly at the judge’s seat.

Lynn shrugged, very calmly stating, “You see, my electron gun is right there, no one has touched it!”

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