wave-particle duality: Quick Facts

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Videos

View an animation explaining how small things like electrons and protons can behave like particles and sometimes like waves

See a demonstration explaining the wave-particle duality of an electron

The discovery of light's wave-particle duality

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Topics

uncertainty principle de Broglie wave Hartree method quantum-mechanical exchange effect perturbation theory Dirac equation complementarity principle Schrödinger equation wave function symmetric wave function radiation CP violation wave motion symmetry vibration quantum field theory phase absorption interference frequency

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electromagnetic radiation: Compton effect

Key People

Louis-Victor de Broglie

Louis de Broglie

French physicist

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Lester Halbert Germer

American physicist

Italian-born physicist Dr. Enrico Fermi draws a diagram at a blackboard with mathematical equations. circa 1950.

Physics and Natural Law