How can an electron be in more than one place at the same point in time?

Answer 1

The point to realise about electrons is that they don’t objectively exist anywhere while they are in motion. There is a probability of them existing in multiple locations but they don’t fully exist in any of those.

So electrons aren’t really in more than one place at one time. Rather they exist ‘smeared’ over a range of points in space with a probability the decreases with distance form the nucleus. They aren’t really in more than one place at once, rather they exist to some extent in all places simultaneously but the probability of their existence in any one place is always finite.

It might help to think of an electron like a global jetsetter, Such a person could possibly anywhere in the world on any given day but they are more likely to be found in one of a few favoured locations. You won’t actually know where they are until you go and look for them but you know they are most likely in St. Tropez or Rio at any given moment. Electrons are much the same. Any individual electron could be in St. Tropez or Rio at any point in time, or they could be at any other point in the universe. The only way to know where they are is to go and have a look.

The crucial difference is that when dealing with electrons it is the act of looking that actually defines the location. They can potentially exists in both St. Tropez and Rio but if you look in St. Tropez and find it then it will have been there all the time.

Answer 2

I view it like this: is a matter of shape no one said that electron where round or spherical. For me the electron can be in two places at the same time because he can adapt such a shape, which makes its density be huge in two places and almost 0 in the middle, that's why you say that he is in 2 places at the same time. Now why it collapses, there's a question but I think 2 chances on that one:

- First your plane of observation in order for you to get a precise measure you change the electron's form to your reality sort of speak.

-Second the electron is always in the two places but you just detect one because your instruments aren't flexible enough.

For me the 2 above are equivalent in a very strange way.

Hoo the first time I saw this problem I thought exact the same thing has odiusmanila but not now

Answer 3

It does not make sense to say that one electron can be in two places at the same time. What we can say is that given some environment (i.e. given forces acting on an electron and its space) we can say what probability or chance it has of being found at a particular point.

Say an electron has a 50% chance of being found at a point A and 50% chance of being found at a point B, then it does not really help (except for science fictionists) to say that one particular electron will be half present in each of the points A or B. Once we detect an electron at a point A, the electron, in its totality, excists at that point ONLY.

However, if we were to send 100 electrons, then on approximately 50 of them will be at point A and the other half will be at B. This approximation will get better and better as we send, say 1,000 or then 10,000 ... electrons.

Answer 4

The mass of an electron is "smeared" over the standing wave of the orbital it occupies. The orbital basically describes the likelihood where a "mechanical" impact by a photon or accelerated electron-sized particle may exchange momentum (and alter the standing wave of the electron to another state).

Answer 5

Small particles like electrons follow quantum mechanical rules.We cannot talk about electron being in some place or having some velocity.All we can say that there is some PROBABILITTY that it would be there.
In fact it is true for every thing in this universe however all things we see in our daily lives have such huge masses that you can say yes this is here ,this is travelling at this velocity and so on.

Answer 6

Because it is a wave and not a particle. The "wave" is really a probability density function, which is the probability that the "particle" can be detected at any one specific location. Notice that I said "be detected at" and not just "be at".

Anyway, that is how I think about the quantum mechanical theory (nobody really understands it).

Answer 7

The laws of quantum physics are very weird.

You should rarely apply everyday logic to the world of the small.

But trust me, if you let it be true and not question it, then youll have no trouble passing the test :-)

-Nick

Answer 8

i don't think that's possible...
but then, you learn something everyday...

maybe because they move so freakishly fast?