5 ms·

Light is both a particle and a wave

privong 13y ago
The carrier for gravity may also have wave-particle duality, via the graviton[0]. 0 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graviton https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graviton
mcguire 13y ago
While light's behavior as both particle and wave can easily be observed, the particle carrier for gravity, the graviton, hasn't been observed in the wild. As a result, gravity is currently only a wave, in relativistic spacetime.
gnaritas 13y ago
Or, light is neither a particle nor a wave, but a distinct thing that seems to behave like both under various circumstances.
- lnanek2 13y ago
  There are some cases in quantum mechanics where you just have to accept that a value can be two different things at once, not that is was really one thing. Like it or not, superposition is a real thing, so it is inarguable that assuming something has to have one value at any one time is wrong. Wave-particle duality is a lot like that as well, where it is tough to come up with some distinct thing that could possibly act like a particle, but still diffract like a wave.
  - Double_Cast 13y ago
    > where it is tough to come up with some distinct thing that could possibly act like a particle, but still diffract like a wave. Armchairing here. But as I understood, objects in quantum-land are known as "amplitudes in the complex plane". They behave like this all the time and under all circumstances, and should be understood on their own terms. E.g. squaring the height of pond ripples doesn't return a probability distribution. The "sometimes it's a wave, but other times it's a particle" idea is a historical artifact, like how humanity uses a base ten number system.
  - gnaritas 13y ago
    It's not tough at all, just stop trying to shoehorn the quantum into things like waves and particles, they aren't both; they're neither. Calling them waves and particles is just trying to cram macro world concepts into places they don't belong because it's easier to understand that way. Quantum behavior isn't like anything we know and thus can't be related to what we know without using bad metaphors. Watch Feynman explain the behavior of magnets and pretty much makes the same point when someone asks if fields are like rubber bands. The wave particle duality is just a bad metaphor for quantum behavior. Quantum behavior is its own thing.
Jach 13y ago
No: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqVVtaWd8Pw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqVVtaWd8Pw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUJfjRoxCbk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUJfjRoxCbk (Or as gnaritas said.) (Also useful: http://www.scottaaronson.com/democritus/default.html http://www.scottaaronson.com/democritus/default.html)

The carrier for gravity may also have wave-particle duality, via the graviton[0]. 0 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graviton https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graviton

mcguire 13y ago

While light's behavior as both particle and wave can easily be observed, the particle carrier for gravity, the graviton, hasn't been observed in the wild. As a result, gravity is currently only a wave, in relativistic spacetime.

gnaritas 13y ago

Or, light is neither a particle nor a wave, but a distinct thing that seems to behave like both under various circumstances.

lnanek2 13y ago
There are some cases in quantum mechanics where you just have to accept that a value can be two different things at once, not that is was really one thing. Like it or not, superposition is a real thing, so it is inarguable that assuming something has to have one value at any one time is wrong. Wave-particle duality is a lot like that as well, where it is tough to come up with some distinct thing that could possibly act like a particle, but still diffract like a wave.
- Double_Cast 13y ago
  > where it is tough to come up with some distinct thing that could possibly act like a particle, but still diffract like a wave. Armchairing here. But as I understood, objects in quantum-land are known as "amplitudes in the complex plane". They behave like this all the time and under all circumstances, and should be understood on their own terms. E.g. squaring the height of pond ripples doesn't return a probability distribution. The "sometimes it's a wave, but other times it's a particle" idea is a historical artifact, like how humanity uses a base ten number system.
- gnaritas 13y ago
  It's not tough at all, just stop trying to shoehorn the quantum into things like waves and particles, they aren't both; they're neither. Calling them waves and particles is just trying to cram macro world concepts into places they don't belong because it's easier to understand that way. Quantum behavior isn't like anything we know and thus can't be related to what we know without using bad metaphors. Watch Feynman explain the behavior of magnets and pretty much makes the same point when someone asks if fields are like rubber bands. The wave particle duality is just a bad metaphor for quantum behavior. Quantum behavior is its own thing.

Jach 13y ago

No: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqVVtaWd8Pw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqVVtaWd8Pw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUJfjRoxCbk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUJfjRoxCbk (Or as gnaritas said.) (Also useful: http://www.scottaaronson.com/democritus/default.html http://www.scottaaronson.com/democritus/default.html)