Uncertainty principle and Wave-particle duality

femi

Please, can someone explain how uncertainity principle explains the wave-particle duality nature of matter and radiation.

fatra2

Hi there,

Where do you get that from???

DrChinese

General idea is that the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle (HUP) allows a trade-off between non-commuting operators. Typcially, you might consider position and momentum. Thus, for a photon: exact knowledge of its position leads to it acting as a particle (and momentum can take a range of values). On the other hand, a wave is not localized (as to position) but its momentum can be known exactly. Wave-like behavior can exhibit interference effects. So there is the trade-off.

Matterwave

Usually it's the other way around. You can get the Uncertainty principle by noting the wave nature of particles.

DrChinese

[Austin Powers-like voice]Or is it really the particle nature of waves? [/Austin Powers-like voice]