- #1
davepl
- 2
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Brace yourself for another banal question, but...
All the explanations I've read that introduce the wave/particle duality start by saying it has to be wave (the light-slit interference experiment) and that light arrives in discrete quantums (the photo electric effect, etc).
None of the "analogy style" explanations cover why light couldn't just be a wave that's always emitted only in discrete "bursts" of a wave. So instead of a particle, you get discrete little bursts of a wave, say one peak-to-peak at the expected wavelength.
Since I doubt I'm about to overturn physics with this ingenious postulate, I assume there are lots of good experiments and reasons why the characteristics that cause people to attribute particle properties to a photon couldn't be explained by it being a short burst of a high-amplitude wave... but can anyone give me an example or explanation?
Thanks!
Dave
All the explanations I've read that introduce the wave/particle duality start by saying it has to be wave (the light-slit interference experiment) and that light arrives in discrete quantums (the photo electric effect, etc).
None of the "analogy style" explanations cover why light couldn't just be a wave that's always emitted only in discrete "bursts" of a wave. So instead of a particle, you get discrete little bursts of a wave, say one peak-to-peak at the expected wavelength.
Since I doubt I'm about to overturn physics with this ingenious postulate, I assume there are lots of good experiments and reasons why the characteristics that cause people to attribute particle properties to a photon couldn't be explained by it being a short burst of a high-amplitude wave... but can anyone give me an example or explanation?
Thanks!
Dave