Use this tag for questions relating to the "wave-nature of particles" or the "particle-nature of waves" as they are often discussed in quantum mechanics, where a single object has properties of both classical particles and classical waves.
Questions tagged [wave-particle-duality]
830 questions
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Are there theories that explain wave-particle duality?
I'm confused by the famous wave-particle duality mystery:
When a particle is left unobserved, it acts like a wave and can explore all classically available particle trajectories simultaneously. By looking at it, you force it to decide on a single…
Outlier
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5
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How do light interference patterns correspond to the particle nature of light?
Interference patterns like those produced by a two-slit experiment make sense to me when I imagine light as a wave, with peaks cancelling out troughs in some locations and two peaks adding together in other locations. What doesn't make sense to me…
dibutin
- 91
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Can human have a long wavelength if he moves slowly enough?
According to the De Broglie hypothesis, wavelength equals to h/mv(m-mass, v-velocity, h-Planck constant), so by moving at a slow speed, that is reducing the v(velocity factor) can human beings with such high masses(m) have a wavelength that is long…
alst
- 247
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6 answers
What is the mechanism behind the wave - particle duality
I'm not exactly sure how to phrase this question; I've been reading about wave -particle duality, its history and how it works. But it's really bothering me, whenever I watch YouTube videos about it or read about it, physicists seems to be careful…
Simon Moore
- 43
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Wave particle duality or complementarity?
First off I have found several different definitions of duality and complementarity, so if anyone has a clear idea on what it meant with these terms please do share.
Now, what I mean is the following: in the wave-particle picture for light and for…
SuperCiocia
- 24,596
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2 answers
What are the key differences between a particle and a wave?
When do we call something a particle, and when do we call something a wave? Do we call something a particle when it is highly localized? If that's right, then a wave packet is a particle. Do we call something a wave when it is not localized and when…
Steven Lee WW
- 143
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3 answers
Is there a wave model that describes absorption of electromagnetic radiation in matter?
I know that there is a particle model that describes the absorption of electromagnetic radiation in matter - A photon with energy E can excite ("absorbed") an atom if it has energy gap of the same size E.
What about a wave model for absorption, or…
Levi Civita
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Electromagnetic radiation and quanta
since electromagnetic radiation possess the property of both wave and particle(photon).
and both theory are applicable but how we have to find out that which theory is suitable or applicable in particular explanation. for example in laser traping…
Rahul
- 1,125
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De Broglie wavelength of slow moving macroscopic objects
I've seen numerous examples where the De Broglie wavelengths of macroscopic objects such as bullets and baseballs have been calculated. However, in each case, the objects are moving fast and the corresponding momentums are large, resulting in tiny…
user46138
- 29
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Is a particle's wavelength the upper bound of its size?
It occurred to me that if the radius of an electron was bigger than its wavelength this might pose a problem. If a particle's radius exceeded its wavelength how would you describe this situation? Would it create a crisis of some kind or could it…
Derek Seabrooke
- 784
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Can this ratio be written any better?
This topic is closely related to previous topic where we were to calculate ratio $\lambda_e/\lambda_p$ for proton and electron with same velocities.
This time we I want to know if it is possible to derive a ratio $\lambda_e/\lambda_p$ for proton…
71GA
- 2,555
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De Broglie wave
It has been written in books that de Broglie waves are" waves of probability amplitude."
I am not able to understand the real physical significance of de broglie wavelength.
Books have the same thing written everywhere.
I mean waves of probability…
crabNebula
- 784
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vote
3 answers
How wave become particle?
Picture below is from a video of Wiki, when there is a observer, the wave will reduce to particle. In my view, observation is equal to interact of two particle. Now, before the interaction, two particle are wave, but when interacting, wave reduce…
Enhao Lan
- 339
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Is there a relation between intensity of light and frequency from the photon point of view?
Suppose we take 2 rays of light with 10 photons each as an example. Let one of the rays be of a higher frequency than the other. We have learnt that intensity of light is the energy passing through a unit area in unit time. Also higher frequency of…
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Confused about de Broglie's wavelength
De Broglie relations state that for frequency $f$ and length $\lambda$ of a matter wave corresponding to (non-relativistic) particle of mass $m$, momentum $p$ and energy $E$ are given by:
$$ \lambda=\frac{h}{p}$$
$$ f=\frac{E}{h}$$
It then follows…
user89768