Wave/particles
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Wave/particles
Can anyone explain how light can be both a particle and a wave I don't understand how it can be both since they have completely different properties.
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- Posts: 62
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Re: Wave/particles
As explained by wave-particle duality, light exhibits characteristics of both waves and particles. In the case of the photoelectric effect, light acts as particles, while in the case of the DeBroglie theorem, light acts as a wave. In sum, "wave" and "particles" are terms that can not be used to fully characterize light.
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Re: Wave/particles
You can see the similarities through the wave-particle duality. Light has very similar qualities of both wave and particles.
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Re: Wave/particles
One specific example regarding how light can be wave and particle is the intensity. In the wave model, the intensity is the amplitude squared, but in the particle model the intensity is the number of photons. Hope this helps.
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Re: Wave/particles
Light acts as a particle because it releases in streams of photons, and it acts as a wave because it can be intensified.
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