My friend says light acts like a wave. I say light acts like a particle. Who's right? There is a pumpkin patch tour riding on this.
2007-01-01 14:33:45 · 14 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
according to Mr. Rogers it is tidal wave, see you at the pumpkin patch parade. Later
2007-01-05 07:43:57 · answer #1 · answered by JuliusRomans 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Light can behave as a particle or as a wave depending on the experiment we set up. Physicists use models to describe the physical behavior of matter/energy. The 2 most widespread models are the particle and the wave. They are pretty straight forward as we see plenty of examples in nature. We are very well acquainted with these concepts so that when we were able to perform more and more detailed experiments we found out that these 2 models were not describing all the experimental results possible on light. That is why there is such a thing as the wave/particle duality. We find this thing strange and keep asking ourselves: ok, but is light REALLY a wave or a praticle. The answer is that light is light! In general the microscopic world IS the microscopic world and with our macroscopic everyday experience we just do not have the correct words and experiences (models) to describe microscopic behavior!!
2007-01-02 06:31:07 · answer #2 · answered by Mr. X 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Chuck, you are both right. Light has a dual character. Sometimes it acts as if it were a wave and sometimes it displays its particle nature. Particles of light are called photons, by the way. Nobel prizes in physics have been given for these discoveries.
Where is the pumpkin patch?
2007-01-01 22:41:29 · answer #3 · answered by SeryyVolk 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
You are both right, and you are both wrong. It is one of the keys to quantum mechanics that light may behave as a wave or as a particle depending on the situation. This is one of the first issues one deals with in studying modern physics, and is one of the best known oddities in the scientific world.
If you don't believe me, do an internet search on "quantum nature of light."
So it's up to you and your friend to work out the pumpkin patch thing. Go for it.
2007-01-01 22:42:48 · answer #4 · answered by aviophage 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
There is evidence from the double-slit experiment to support that light acts as both a wave and as a particle.
Experimentally it has been shown that when a beam of light is shot at a slit with a hole in it, that a pattern appears on the rear screen similar to you shinning a flashlight beam onto a wall in a darkened room. It is brighter in the center with decreasing intensity as you radiate outwards to form a circle This is because most of the light that comes through the slit is strait in line with it, but there is some at angles to the slit that enters as well, but not as much. As you increase the angle towards the hole, less goes through and the intensity diminishes. This is light behaving as a particle.
Now if you put two slits in the same barrier, when the light travels through onto the rear screen instead of observing two overlapping circles of light with bright centers, you see a center intense vertical stripe of light with mirror image bands on either side in decreasing brightness. A similar image is seen in a tank using waves of water and similar double-slits, each wave on one side of the barrier creates two smaller waves originating at the slits on the other side. The waves can collide and combine, which creates an interference pattern. This experimentally observed phenomenon of light confirms that it has wave properties too.
2007-01-01 23:17:50 · answer #5 · answered by M G 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It's both...
It acts with both properties of waves and particles. The actual particles are called photons, energy packets. In the same way, it is called an "electromagnetic wave." It is really complicated. It's both.
2007-01-01 22:44:33 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Both of you are right and both of you are wrong.
The problem is that light is not a tiny billiard ball and neither is it a continuous wave. Some attributes of light are similar to what a tiny billiard ball would have and some attributes of light are similar to what a wave would have.
Energy is delivered in discrete values like a set of tiny billiard balls would deliver.
Light shining through parallel slits in a wall can result in diffraction patterns just like it were a wave.
2007-01-02 00:31:58 · answer #7 · answered by anonimous 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
light has Dual Character
both particle as well as wave like.
2007-01-01 22:35:13 · answer #8 · answered by skr 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
visible light has characteristics of each. The bluring of an edge of a shadow shows characteristics of a particle..yet as light is bent through a prism, it show characteristics of a wave...so you are both right...
2007-01-01 22:42:50 · answer #9 · answered by chris f 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You're both right!!! Particles go together by waves!
2007-01-01 22:37:02 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋