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To me, Wave/Particle means that we have observations consistent with waves and observations consistent with particles. I don't think you really have to go beyo
by csours 2y ago
To me, Wave/Particle means that we have observations consistent with waves and observations consistent with particles.
I don't think you really have to go beyond that - except that is not how things behave in the macro world. The problem is trying to map Wave/Particles to the macro scale. Just don't do it.
- wry_discontent 2y agoThis is exactly what I learned in a philosophy of science course in college. Not this specific topic, but that approach. Science is a model, and as soon as you're generalizing past experiments and observations, you're outside of where you should be.
- lijok 2y agoWhat I always wondered as a layman with no background in physics is - couldn’t the observed particle-like properties of waves be an emergent property?
- burnished 2y agoYou can observe the effect even when there is only one particle moving at a time.
- Maxatar 2y agoI think this needs to be qualified a bit. You can make numerous observations of a single electron over a period of time and see a wave like pattern emerge, or you can take a single observation of numerous electrons and see a wave like pattern emerge, but you can never take a single observation of one electron and see a wave like pattern.
- richardw 2y ago> You can make numerous observations of a single electron over a period of time and see a wave like pattern emerge I thought measurement along the path collapses the wave, removing the wave pattern over the full source to destination that would be displayed if there was no observation? Eg in dual slit if you observe at one of the slits, the pattern disappears. Wave-like behaviour only exists between observations.
- itishappy 2y agoYou can take a single measurement of a single particle and discover it in a location forbidden by classical mechanics such as the shaded area between the two slits.
- oneshtein 2y agoIt's forbidden by classical mechanics when particles are modeled like steel balls, without medium, without electromagnetic properties of the particle, without noise. For example, we can make sand to behave like water, by bubbling air through it, but it doesn't break classical mechanics.
- burnished 2y agoThe two slit experiment still works if you emit a single particle at a time. Which means that the wave nature is not an emergent property of a group of particles, but observable in just one.
- nanomonkey 2y agoThe two slit experiment, fundamentally requires more than one particle, as the slits themselves are made of matter. While one photon travels through the experiment at a time, there are many particles interacting and influencing the fields that the photon travels through. In the information theory of Physics there are thought experiments about deep space, where one particle may be essentially all alone, in such cases the particle's decoherence becomes quite dramatic.
- Maxatar 2y agoIt's not observable in just one electron, as you pointed out it takes multiple particles to be emitted before the wave like properties are observable.
- burnished 2y agoThe electrons do not need to interact. You can emit them at a cadence of once a week and eventually see evidence of a wave nature.
- Maxatar 2y agoI don't see the significance of your statement or how it's relevant to the point. As you once again just said, you eventually, after emitting multiple electrons see the wave like properties emerge.
- marcosdumay 2y agoAll the observations are consistent with waves... that change in behavior when you poke them in any way. Macroscopic waves also change in behavior when you poke them, this is not mysterious. But the relative energy of the poking to the wave on quantum mechanics is huge for out macroscopic standards.