MadSci Network: Physics |
What is wave-particle duality? Sometimes light is treated as a wave and other times it is treated as made up of particles, photons. In any given measurement, only one model applies, wave or particle. "Neils Bohr summarized the situation in his principle of complementarity. The wave and particle models are complementary; if a measurement proves the wave character of radiation or matter, then it is impossible to prove the particle character in the same measurement, and conversely. Which model we use is determined by the nature of the measurement. ..." Reference: Page 63 of Eisberg and Resnick's Quantum Physics, 2nd Edition, 1985
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