- #1
thetexan
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I was reading about the two slot experiment and how electrons appear to be wavelike as well as particlelike. How can this be the writer asked. It started me to consider water waves and what they are.
We never think of water as a single molecule. We always think of it as what we observer, a fluid mass of lots of single molecules and they always interact in the form of waves. Waves, at least as water is concerned, is the flowing of many molecules over each other in interesting patterns we call waves.
We think of electrons and photons as particles and wonder why they behave as a wave. It would seem at an elementary level of reasoning that, like water, these particles are so numerous that they behave in interesting patterns called waves.
So where are the rest of them? Think about this. Every cubit nanometer of the universe is filled to the brim with photons and cosmic particles of every kind. The proof of this is as follows. Imagine you are floating in space observing all of the lovely photons from all of the stars and galaxies in the universe. Move your eye to the right 1 inch. You still observe the stars and galaxies. In fact, no matter where you move you light receptors (eyes) you capture photons from limitless origins. Now, try to put you eye in a 'light void' where you can not see any light from the stars. It can't be done. That is because photons are everywhere, permeating every cubit femtometer of the universe. Add to this all of the other particles of various kinds and it's obvious the space is a soup of 'stuff'. There's nothing empty about it. Perhaps this is the dark matter we talk about. It seems to me that we actually do have an 'ether'...an ether of particles.
In any case, like a ocean of water molecules, each of these particles can act as a single particle (in fact, that's precisely what they are) and they appear as waves only because of the ocean of particles interacting with each other.
A universe of water waves and water molecules...or, better stated, a universe of elementary particles and the associated waves.
Where am I going wrong with this thinking?
tex
We never think of water as a single molecule. We always think of it as what we observer, a fluid mass of lots of single molecules and they always interact in the form of waves. Waves, at least as water is concerned, is the flowing of many molecules over each other in interesting patterns we call waves.
We think of electrons and photons as particles and wonder why they behave as a wave. It would seem at an elementary level of reasoning that, like water, these particles are so numerous that they behave in interesting patterns called waves.
So where are the rest of them? Think about this. Every cubit nanometer of the universe is filled to the brim with photons and cosmic particles of every kind. The proof of this is as follows. Imagine you are floating in space observing all of the lovely photons from all of the stars and galaxies in the universe. Move your eye to the right 1 inch. You still observe the stars and galaxies. In fact, no matter where you move you light receptors (eyes) you capture photons from limitless origins. Now, try to put you eye in a 'light void' where you can not see any light from the stars. It can't be done. That is because photons are everywhere, permeating every cubit femtometer of the universe. Add to this all of the other particles of various kinds and it's obvious the space is a soup of 'stuff'. There's nothing empty about it. Perhaps this is the dark matter we talk about. It seems to me that we actually do have an 'ether'...an ether of particles.
In any case, like a ocean of water molecules, each of these particles can act as a single particle (in fact, that's precisely what they are) and they appear as waves only because of the ocean of particles interacting with each other.
A universe of water waves and water molecules...or, better stated, a universe of elementary particles and the associated waves.
Where am I going wrong with this thinking?
tex