Mondo Knows Facts

The double slit experiment shows light interfering

Two narrow slits produce alternating bright and dark bands on a screen Thomas Young demonstrated the effect in 1801 with sunlight passing through a pair of pinholes. Where waves from the two openings arrive in step they add and make a bright band, and where they arrive out of step they cancel. Firing single photons one at a time still builds the same pattern. It sits in Mondo's science collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.

Where this comes from

American Physical Society

Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.

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Tags: light, quantum, experiment

The double slit experiment shows light interfering: the short answers

Where does this come from, and can I check it?
Two narrow slits produce alternating bright and dark bands on a screen. The figure is taken from American Physical Society, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
Is this really a science fact?
Yes. It sits on the Science shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
What else can I read about it?
The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.