Why does light sometimes behave like waves and other times like particles?
Why does light sometimes behave like waves and other times like particles?
Imagine you're at a concert, and you see a laser light show. The light beams sometimes seem to spread out and create patterns, while at other times, they just zip straight through without changing direction.
The double-slit experiment shows that light and electrons can act like waves, creating patterns, or like particles, going straight. This is called wave-particle duality.
Example
When the laser light hits the slits, it creates a pattern on the screen that looks like waves interfering with each other, not just straight lines.
Remember this
Light and electrons can behave like both waves and particles, depending on how you look at them.
Text adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Davisson–Germer experiment
Did light behave like waves or particles? Imagine trying to understand a mysterious shadow
Erwin Schrödinger
Can light be both a wave and a particle?
Schwinger limit
Can light itself create particles?
History of physics
Did Dirac's math hint at a shadowy twin of electrons?
Electron paramagnetic resonance
Why can't we see the invisible dance of electrons?
Einstein's photoelectric explanation used Planck's E=hf to predict that higher frequency light ejects faster electrons
Why can't you just turn up the brightness to get electrons flying?
Swipe through more Physics concepts
Open Pocket Polymath