Can you put a cat through diffraction slits?

[jimmydasaint]

My knowledge of Physics does not extend far beyond K10 or the UK GCSE. However, I read that buckyballs (C60 =bucminsterfullerene) forced into diffraction slits caused an interference pattern typical of waves, demonstrating, once again, the duality of matter.

 

http://www.quantum.univie.ac.at/research/matterwave/c60/index.html#Motivation

 

If this is the case, and we become Spike Milligan silly here, can you fire a series of cats through an appropriate slit diameter and get the same pattern?

[insane_alien]

in theory, yes. in practise, any effect would not be noticable and the conditions under which it would need to occur would result in the cats being dead.

 

technically, everytime you walk through a door way you get diffracted a little tiny bit.

[jimmydasaint]

Apart from showing duality of matter, what other interest would there be in sending buckyballs through the slits?

[Pangloss]

in theory, yes. in practise, any effect would not be noticable and the conditions under which it would need to occur would result in the cats being dead.

 

When do we start?

[insane_alien]

as soon as we finish construction of a 1.21GW heisenberg-shroedinger cat-toast device to power the feline accelerator.

[John Cuthber]

"any effect would not be noticable and the conditions under which it would need to occur would result in the cats being dead"

Surely if it killed the cat this woulds be noticable.

[Kyrisch]

"any effect would not be noticable and the conditions under which it would need to occur would result in the cats being dead"

Surely if it killed the cat this woulds be noticable.

 

I'm pretty sure it was meant that no quantum effects would be noticeable...

[Pangloss]

One point twenty-one gigawatts??!!

[pioneer]

In it's normal life, cats do not show any particle-wave duality. In a loose sense cats act more like particles without any wave affect. If the cats could be coated in epoxy or something to retain their particle nature would they also show a wave affect going through diffraction slits? Or does this particle-wave affect only occur up to a certain level?

[Sisyphus]

I'm sure that in 1985, plutonium is available in every corner drug store, but in 1955 it's a little hard to come by.

[swansont]

as soon as we finish construction of a 1.21GW heisenberg-shroedinger cat-toast device to power the feline accelerator.

 

On the contrary — if you want to see the diffraction, you need to reduce the momentum. [math]\lambda = \frac{h}{p}[/math]

 

We need the feline refrigerator.

[Daecon]

Shouldn't it be 1.21 Jiggawatts?

[john5746]

If this is the case, and we become Spike Milligan silly here, can you fire a series of cats through an appropriate slit diameter and get the same pattern?

 

Actually, one cat would probably make a pretty good splatter pattern.

 

Seriously, is there evidence to suggest that QM duality occurs with larger objects or can we get that precise with measurements?

[swansont]

Actually, one cat would probably make a pretty good splatter pattern.

 

Seriously, is there evidence to suggest that QM duality occurs with larger objects or can we get that precise with measurements?

 

As previously mentioned, C-60 has been shown to diffract and interfere. Na₂ as well. But you need lots of particles for the pattern to show up, meaning they all have to have the same energy (or momentum). The diffraction pattern spacing for nodes vs antinodes is [math]\frac{y\lambda}{d}[/math]

 

Making d (slit separation) small enough is hard, since the cat has to make it through the slits, so d can't be smaller than that. The wavelength is small, even for a slow-moving, liquid-He temperature frozen cat. So for the separation to be visible — it has to be larger than the cat — you'd have to be really far away (y must be really big).

 

The details are left as an exercise for the diligent student.

 

The atom interferometer I worked on ages ago was going to use milliKelvin-ish Rb atoms traveling at (IIRC) 30 cm/s and going through slits that were 125 nm apart. You can do the math for that, too, if you want to.

[DrP]

You need a flux cat-pacitor!

[alan2here]

Everytime you walk through a door way you get diffracted a little tiny bit.

Please expand

[John Cuthber]

To some tiny degree when you walk through a door your path may (and probably will) deviate slightly from a straight line.

[alan2here]

To some tiny degree when you walk through a door your path may (and probably will) deviate slightly from a straight line.

Like when you are really drunk?

 

lol, only joking. Could you reword your explanation using the terms "bending of waves" and "quantum" in there somewhere while still staying on the scale suitable for a person and a door.

[Sayonara]

in theory, yes. in practise, any effect would not be noticable and the conditions under which it would need to occur would result in the cats being dead.

 

I think that if you had slits with sufficiently sharp edges, you would see quite an unmistakeable diffraction pattern.

[Klaynos]

you also need to be moving really slowly to see any effect as the debroglie wavelength has to be on order of the slits.

[Sayonara]

I am not sure we are on the same wavelength there...

[Mr Skeptic]

in theory, yes. in practise, any effect would not be noticable and the conditions under which it would need to occur would result in the cats being dead.

 

A cat in a space suit? Well, that would make it heavier. Better if we learn about cryonically freezing cats. It can then be revived, but won't be able to tell how it felt to get refracted. And several cats would be needed to confirm the diffraction pattern.