2 ms·

What does “fairly compact” mean if not “precisely localised”? If the wave function is not localized it doesn’t make much sense to talk about a particle in the f

• scotty79 7y ago
  "Fairly compact" as in precission that we can achieve, instead of perfect precission and mathematical consequence of quickly spreading over entire universe. I think it never makes much sense to talk about a particle. In the wave particle duality, the particle part doesn't have many arguments for it. You can understand and calculate everything using waves. Just not macroscopic kind of waves but waves that have few peculiar qualities that macroscopic waves don't have. Any way... Thank you for indulging my ramblings about the things I barely grasp. :-)
  • kgwgk 7y ago
    You can get some intuitive understanding of “the wave” as something in space only when you have one single particle. But as soon as you have two interacting particles what you have is a single wave function which is a (complex) function of six parameters (three coordinates for each particle). Add more particles - and their spins - and pretty soon you cannot “understand” anything at all from the wavefunction on its own.