Particle/wave duality: physical reality? Or really physical crackpottery?

In summary, the crackpots say that light is a wave when it's not being observed, but when it is observed, it is corpuscular.
  • #1
Glen Bartusch
57
0
I, as with Albert Einstein, shall always side with Issac Newton; that is to say, that light is corpuscular. There is no such thing as a light 'wave'.
Sure, Thomas Young threw the world of physics a curveball in 1802, backed by Huygens and his somewhat sound reasoning (for the time). But who would have thought that this curveball would have flown this far, and for so long! So long, in fact, that there are crackpots by the minions concocting all kinds of silly and absurd ideas to try to explain away simple, everyday phonomena such as diffraction.
What absurd ideas are the crackpots concocting as a result of sustaining severe blows to the head as a result of Young's curveballs? Look to Scientific American Magazine and other related media for your answer: Branes. Superstrings. Articles on "multiple worlds" and the like. All these "concepts", backed by their physical "mechanisms", attempt to answer the simple question: what causes light and sub-atomic substance to diffract? A non-local realist even suggested a few years back that there are superluminal speeds--speeds in excess of 10,000x the speed of light--which convey the information between two correlated photons!

Indeed, it's not branes, superstrings or superluminal velocities and their teachings that are at fault; what's at fault here is StarTrek: The Next Generation and all the crackpot physicists that follow it.

I, like Issac Newton, propose that light consists of photons; photons which are corpuscular and non-wave in nature. Crackpots will have a hard time with the proposition, since diffraction of light initially appears as a wave-like phonomenon. What the crackpots ignore is that each wave needs a medium for which to travel in. Whether that medium be air for acoustic waves, water for water waves or two terminii for the wave along a rope, there needs to be a medium for a wave.
 
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  • #2
So do you have a question, or do you just want to rant by calling mainstream scientists crackpots?
 
  • #3
Academic said:
So do you have a question, or do you just want to rant by calling mainstream scientists crackpots?

My question is the longstanding question of all rational people: why does light form light and dark bands on a nearby screen after having exited a small aperture?

I am not ranting. I am not calling names. And most importantly, I believe it's a sad state of affairs in our history of physics when guys who write articles are claiming branes, superstrings, and wavepackets are what's behind diffraction.

Indeed, with all such crackpottery, physics is indeed well-immersed in a sort of 'dark age'.
 
  • #4
What you deem to be 'reality' or not is your prerogative. In any case, the models created in this 'dark age' have the most powerful descriptive and predictive power of any ever invented before. And in the end, that's all that really matters.
 
  • #5
Academic said:
What you deem to be 'reality' or not is your prerogative. In any case, the models created in this 'dark age' have the most powerful descriptive and predictive power of any ever invented before. And in the end, that's all that really matters.

OK, then, since waves need a medium to propogate in, then what is the medium the photon propogates in?

When the photon's in superposition, what is it propogating into make a diffraction pattern?
When light is not being observed what medium is it propogating in to make its diffraction pattern? Well?

Again. The crackpots say light is a wave when it's not being observed. What medium, may I ask, is the 'unobserved' light propogating in that gives it its wavelike characteristic?

...the crackpots are silent...
 

1. What is particle/wave duality and how does it relate to physical reality?

Particle/wave duality is the concept in quantum mechanics that states that particles can exhibit both particle-like and wave-like properties. This means that at the subatomic level, particles can behave like discrete, localized entities (particles) or as waves spread out over space (waves). This has been confirmed through various experiments, such as the double-slit experiment. It is a fundamental aspect of quantum mechanics and our understanding of physical reality.

2. Is there any evidence to support the idea of particle/wave duality?

Yes, there is a lot of evidence to support particle/wave duality. As mentioned, the double-slit experiment is one of the most famous examples. Other experiments, such as the photoelectric effect and the Compton effect, also demonstrate the dual nature of particles. Additionally, mathematical equations and theories, such as the Schrodinger equation and the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, also support the concept of particle/wave duality.

3. Can you explain how a particle can act like a wave?

In classical physics, particles are described as having definite positions and velocities. However, at the quantum level, particles exhibit wave-like behavior due to their wave-like nature. This means that they can exist in multiple places at the same time and have properties such as wavelength and frequency. This behavior can be described using mathematical equations, such as the wave function, which gives the probability of finding a particle at a certain location.

4. Does particle/wave duality imply that everything in the universe is connected?

No, particle/wave duality does not imply a connection between all things in the universe. While particles may exhibit wave-like behavior, they are still distinct entities with their own properties and interactions. The concept of entanglement, where two particles can be connected in a way that their properties are dependent on each other, is often misunderstood as a connection between all things. However, this is a phenomenon that only occurs under specific conditions and does not imply a universal connection.

5. Are there any alternative theories that reject particle/wave duality?

There are some alternative theories, such as the pilot-wave theory, which attempt to explain quantum phenomena without the need for particle/wave duality. However, these theories have not been widely accepted by the scientific community and do not have as much evidence to support them. Particle/wave duality has been well-tested and confirmed through numerous experiments, making it a fundamental concept in modern physics.

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