Light is known to have a wave-particle duality

[ashutosha]

light is known to have a wave-particle duality
which of the 2 explain lights behavior best and which one is widely accepted?

 

[nooma]

There are aspects in which both cause different effects. Do to its ability to travel through a vacuum it has particle like properties, however in such applications such as Yeungs double slit experiment it acts as a wave

 

[ashutosha]

yes but which one is accepted?

 

[Vanadium 50]

That's not a valid question. Light has properties like a wave, and properties like a particle. Asking which one it is is like asking whether a bat is really a mouse or really a bird.

 

[nooma]

yes but which one is accepted?

When talking about wave-particle duality, it means that it has been accepted that it acts both like a wave and a particle. If this were not so it would leave very big holes as to why many of lights characteristcs occur.

 

[maverick_starstrider]

light is known to have a wave-particle duality
which of the 2 explain lights behavior best and which one is widely accepted?

We now know that ALL particles have wave like character (electrons, protons, a baseball, etc.) it just happens to be more distinguished/obvious with light. In quantum mechanics all particles are treated as a probabiliity wave function which propogates through space (as oppose to some little point particle futzing around). So I guess you could say that the resolution to wave-particle duality is that we never knew what particles were really like to begin with, now we realize they all have wave-like characteristics.

 

[ashutosha]

thanx...

 

[Dale]

Asking which one it is is like asking whether a bat is really a mouse or really a bird.

Well said.

 

[Vanadium 50]

Well said.

Thanks. I'm bucking for Physics Guru for next year.

 

[negitron]

The fact of the matter is, we really don't know exactly what these things are. They act like particles at times, and like waves at others. In all likelihood, this means that they aren't either one, just something which acts like one or the other.