The Most Beautiful Experiment in Physics: How the Double Slit Remained Relevant for Over Two Centuries

My senior thesis is a historical analysis of various double slit experiments performed between 1801 and 2023. Starting with Thomas Young’s simple yet brilliant original in 1801 and culminating with a time dependent variation published in April 2023)in Nature, I look into the scientific impacts of these experiments as well as the ingenious methods required to complete them. In addition to the original and time dependent experiments, I will cover various other versions that represent breakthroughs or firsts concerning the particular media used to conduct the experiment. These include the first double slit using electrons, large molecule diffraction, single electron interference, and a controlled electron experiment that Richard Feynman had come up with as a thought experiment and dismissed as impossible a handful of decades earlier.