In school you learned about the atom as though the electrons were particles. But what if you were taught wrong? What if matter is in reality a wave? This is the question raised by Lois de Broglie and is the focus of this essay. First we will cover the difference between particles and waves. Then we will cover the origin of this debate, the duality of light and the double slit experiment. Then we will look at the man behind this unorthodox idea, what his scientific background is and his reasons for suggesting this unorthodox idea. Finally we will examine the data behind this experiment and see if it stands up or not.
What are the main differences behind a wave and the particle? A particle has locality, this means it can be in only one place at one time, while a wave is continues and is at all of its points at once. Particles have momentum which is its mass times its velocity. Instead waves have periods, frequencies, amplitude, and wavelengths.
To better understand where the argument of matter duality came from we must go back to the argument of light duality. Christiaan Huygens, who lived from 1629-1695, originally defined light as a wave based on the way light diffracted and reflected while Sir Isaac Newton, who lived from 1642-1727, believed that light was a stream of particles due to the nature of shadows. Because of his fame Sir Isaac’s theory was the accepted view of light. This all changed with the famous double slit experiment of Thomas Young. What he did was prove that light behaved like a wave by projecting a light source through two slits. When one slit was used the light passed through and was brightest at the opening, but when both slits were used the light diffracted and as a result of super positioning the light w...
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Ekspong, G. (n.d.). The dual nature of light as reflected in the Nobel archives. In Nobelprize. Retrieved from http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/articles/ekspong/
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5th Feb, 2014. Wolf, Johnathan. " The Spotlights." Wolf, Johnathan. AP Physics B. Barron’s:
A Norton Critical Edition, Second Edition ; ed. by Philip Appleman; copyright 1979, 1970 by W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. Philip G. Fothergill, Historical Aspects of Organic Evolution, pub. 1953 by the Philosophical Library Inc., 15 East 40th Street, New York, NY.
According to René Descartes, substance dualism is a dual particular kind of matter that has two kinds of properties. In this case, the two kinds of properties are mental properties and physical properties of human beings. The mental properties are the thoughts of an individual and the physical properties are the extension in space. Descartes explains that a person is not identical to a body; a person can exist without a body because it is not a body. Henceforth, Descartes claims that substance dualism is true. From this point of view, Descartes makes his claim that substance dualism is true in order to make clear what the new science really is about, to explain the new physics of the contemporary period, and to figure out the vitality of the
existed in life, the physical and the nonphysical. He broke his theory of Dualism into two
The author tells of how waves are effected by quantum mechanic. He also discusses the fact that electromagnetic radiation, or photons, are actually particles and waves. He continues to discuss how matter particles are also matter, but because of their h bar, is so small, the effects are not seen. Green concludes the quantum mechanics discussion by talking about the uncertainty principle.Chapter 5: The need for a New Theory: General Relativity vs.
In chapter seven we learned about the electron structure of an atom. We learned about the Bohr model, electromagnetic energy, and many other related topics. In this essay I will explain in further detail what light really is and how we describe it. I will describe the behavior of electrons in both a hydrogen atom and all atoms. I will explain the arrangement of the elements in the periodic table, state which electrons are chemically important in atoms, and lastly I will describe the properties of atoms and their relation to their electron arrangements. The information provided will be my interpretation of the chapter, and my outlook on what this chapter was about.
Dualism is the theory that mind and matter are two distinct things. The main argument for dualism is that facts about the objective external world of particles and fields of force, as revealed by modern physical science, are not facts about how things appear from any particular point of view, whereas facts about subjective experience are precisely about how things are from the point of view of individual conscious subjects. They have to be described in the first person as well as in the third person.
The debate as to the true nature of human beings, the existence of free will and the validity of science is centered on two philosophical theories; dualism and materialism. Under dualism, the proponents believe that there are two kinds of matter that make up human beings which is the physical presence and the non-physical mind or soul . Materialism on the one hand proposes that man and matter is one and the same thing and there cannot be in existence any other non-physical entity therefore . Materialism is one of the major theories that greatly oppose dualism.
...at this book should be included with all works that hold a high literary merit. This book appeals to a wide scope of people; it relates the complicated aspects of physics in a manner that can be understood by much of the general public. More than that, this novel gives the reader a glimpse into Feynman himself. The reader can now see how he thinks and functions, additionally, it allows the reader to preview what it may have been like to be in one of Feynman’s classes. This man is considered a modern day genius, and just the chance to further see what he is actually like, is something that allows for this book to be valued more highly.
Modern science is based on material, experimental evidence, but if matter is non-material as the physicist's fundamental forces suggest, then it will not be able to explain what matter is. It can only explain how nature works by observing the effects on material objects. In his book In Search of Schrödinger's Cat ch. 8, Gribbin suggests the possibility that no particle is real until it is observed. The act of observation collapses the wave function so that one of a number of ghost particles becomes a real particle. This idea has similarities with idealism and its appearance and reality arguments. Gribbin does not take the argument forward so let us consider the philosophical arguments instead of the physics.
Stemming from the first years of the 20th century, quantum mechanics has had a monumental influence on modern science. First explored by Max Planck in the 1900s, Einstein modified and applied much of the research in this field. This begs the question, “how did Einstein contribute to the development and research of quantum mechanics?” Before studying how Einstein’s research contributed to the development of quantum mechanics, it is important to examine the origins of the science itself. Einstein took much of Planck’s experimental “quantum theory” research and applied it in usable ways to existing science. He also greatly contributed to the establishment of the base for quantum mechanics research today. Along with establishing base research in the field, Einstein’s discoveries have been modified and updated to apply to our more advanced understanding of this science today. Einstein greatly contributed to the foundation of quantum mechanics through his research, and his theories and discoveries remain relevant to science even today.
Some physical entities such as light can display some characteristics of both particles and waves. Before the early 20th century, scientists believed that light was in the form of an electromagnetic wave. It wasn’t until the 20th century onwards that scientists found that light has properties of waves and particles. Scientists discovered different properties of light through experimentation and allowed them to determine that light actually has a wave-particle duality.
The understanding that matter was composed of atoms was changed with the discovery of smaller particles than the atoms, which are protons, neutrons, and electrons. But during the 1960’s, the multitude of particles being discovered was making the understanding that matter is composed of protons, neutrons, and electrons, insufficient. Murray Ge...
Since the days of Newton, the ideas of classical mechanics prevailed in the scientific community. The ideas of absolute velocity and absolute time were accepted phenomenon and were not at all challenged. However, as the nineteenth century drew to a close, new observations were being made, observations which contradicted the current theory of the time.