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Spreading of a wave packet [5 pts]

A series of experiments is performed on identically prepared electrons (mass ) moving in free space. Two groups of measurements are performed. In the first group of measurements, the position of the particles along the direction are measured at time t=0; a histogram of the resulting positions is provided in Figure 4a. In the second group, the experimentalist first waits a time t=80 s, and then measures the positions of the electrons; the results of this group of measurements appear in Figure 4b.


According to the HUP, these results are

Allowed Not Allowed

  
Figure 4: Experiments on a wave packet. a) Results when the experiments are performed at time t=0. b) Results when the experiments are performed at t=80 s.



Prof. Tomas Alberto Arias
Thu Mar 7 15:22:31 EST 1996