What is all this wave particle duality jazz?

Answer 1

In the photo electric effect, light behaves like a particle. In the double slit experiment, light behaves like a wave. 

JJ Thompson discovered electrons and that they are negatively charged particles. However, scientists have demonstrated that electrons behave like waves, too. 

The de Broglie hypothesis, (pronounced duh-broy), states that all matter also behaves like a wave. One might be tempted to say that just because matter behaves like a wave doesn’t mean it is a wave.

Answer 2

That jazz is how the universe works. It is why atoms don't collapse. 

Answer 3

It is simply the best explanation for what countless experiments repeatedly tell us.

Answer 4

Rational people do some research:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wave%E2%80%93particl...

https://photonterrace.net/en/photon/duality/

https://www.sciencedaily.com/terms/wave-particle_d...

Answer 5

The way we imagine, or explain, the behavior of energy.  Sometimes energy acts like it works as a particle, and sometimes it acts like it is a waveform.  Well, there it is: particle-wave duality.  So it is something that is both at the same time, at least as a practical matter (who can actually say what it really is like) but which we observe as dominant depends on the circumstances.

Mental models are very useful things for prediction and understanding, but don't have to actually be what truly is.  All we can say is that this is how the thing behaves.

Answer 6

Wave-particle duality is one of the quantum theories. It was proven by the double-slit experiment. If light goes through one vertical slit, the photons will "land" on a special board on the other side like one vertical line. If it goes through two slits, we will see that there will not be two distinct lines as it was with one slit. We will see an interference pattern of waves.

But the most bizarre result is when a detector to observe the passage of the photons through the two slits is turned on, The interference pattern will not hold true anymore. We would see two lines where the photons "landed" after passing through two slits.

No one knows how this could happen. And this is the dilemma. Scientists say, however, that the two-slit experiment is a way to know that particles (even electrons) behave as a duality of waves and particles, hence the name Wave-Particle Duality.

Answer 7

To us , light and fundamental particles generally , display behaviours which can be described by both waves ,and particles -- and we don't understand that. 

Wave particle duality ,therefore ,is a reflection of  our ignorance 

Answer 8

Imagine a leaf floating on a pond while some kids throw rocks into the pond.

The leaf is a particle. It is a small object in one specific location at any specific time.

The rocks create ripples that move the leaf. A ripple is a wave: it describes the motion of water over a wide area. 

When two or more waves overlap, they create a complicated pattern. They can even cancel each other out if one wave moves up when the other moves down. As a result, the two ripples do NOT push the leaf in a way that is simply the sum of the ways the two ripples would push it independently.

Everything in the universe appears to act like this leaf on a rippling pond. Light does so pretty obviously; whereas matter has such a small wavelength that it's hard to see the wave effects.

If we let units of light pass through a hole one at a time, they behave like particles: each moves in a random direction. But if we let several units of light pass through the hole at the same time, their waves interact and cancel out in some places. More light ends up in some directions and less light in other directions

Answer 9

Light can appear to be both a wave of energy or an actual particle depending on how you look at it through a slit.

Kind of like how a naked fat lady can appear to be both attractive and/or repulsive depending on which part of her you see when you're looking through a small key hole.

Source(s): Dont you believe it. It either is or it aint.