Dualism

[Gregz]

Modern Physics claims that any physical form of matter or energy can not be uniquely described as either a particle or wave, but has both properties, either of which manifests itself dependent on the physical situation (experimental set-up) considered.

Light for instance has to be described as a wave in order to explain interference effects, whereas the photoeffect should prove its particle property. However, any such apparent evidence for a wave-particle dualism arises in reality only from an inconsistent theoretical treatment of the physical processes involved.

In the case of the photoeffect, it can be shown that it can be fully explained by the interaction of an electromagnetic wave with an atom. Its discrete nature reflects in fact only the quantization of the atoms in the detector material and the particle properties of the electrons released rather than the properties of the incident light.

It is obvious that the concepts of particles and waves are mutually exclusive as they are complementary parts of any physical interaction model (more generally, the same can be said of particles and fields).

The fact that only a certain number of atoms and not all of them are being ionized if exposed to the radiation field could be due to the necessity for the atomic electron orbit to be aligned with the plane of polarization of the radiation field.


Gregz

"The trouble with self-made men is that they worship their creator."

[justoleme]

I am new here,not an expert on science,,but i wish there was something like this on TV in my country..i live near Houston..just found this place.It is nice to read all this..

[Marinus]

Hello Gregz!

Please don't forget that all physical "laws" and theories are only MODELS. The reality is so complicated that you need a model. Such a model is always a simplification / abstraction of reality.
The old Egyptians used ropes with knots to construct a nearly perfect right angle. The old Greeks proposed: "Imagine the rope is infinitely thin, then you will get the perfect right angle". But infinitely thin ropes only exist in the human mind. They are EASY for calculations and predictions.

Scienctific models do not represent "truth". Scientific models are CONVENIENT for describing an extreme complicated reality. During past centuries those models were regularly improved. E.g. Newton's gravity formula was good, Einstein's ideas about gravity were better.

To me, it is no problem that quantum mechanics has a dualistic character... as long as the predictions from quantum physical calculations are "nearly perfect".

[Edited by Marinus on 1st August 2001 at 23:33]