Quantum Interference

 

Interference is a phenomenon that is typically associated with waves, e.g. water waves, sound waves and light waves. It is when two or more waves add up or cancel each other out at certain points.

Credit: physics-animations

 

Interference is commonly observed in everyday life when there are disruptions or dips in electromagnetic signals from household appliances and in telecommunications. Intereference is also the basis of noise-cancelling headphones.  

The truth is that interference is not a weird property on its own. It’s the fact that quantum objects exhibit this type of behaviour which is only expected for waves. This leads us to think that quantum objects may exhibit both particle and wave-like behaviours, which is referred to as wave-particle duality.