• Sciaphobia@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    Last I read about this was years and years ago, and the claim at the time from the source I learned about it from was that the cause of this behavior is unknown. Is it known now?

    • cynar@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Its source is known. Unfortunately, it requires a different way of looking at everything. (It’s all waves, even if it looks like a particle most of the time). Wrapping this up as simple pop science, that can be digested by most laymen, is difficult.

      What we don’t actually know is why everything is made of waves. We know the rules it follows, but not the underlying cause. Figuring that would would likely require an understanding of quantum relativity, something we only have a very weak handle on.

    • underisk@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      It’s just proof that light behaves as a wave, because it generates an interference pattern like the first picture. The second picture is how it would theoretically behave if it was (only) a particle, which it isn’t. The proof that light acts like a particle comes from a second experiment proposed by Einstein dealing with the photoelectric effect.

      This article is meant for kids but it explains things pretty plainly. The duality is unexplained, but the experiment is well understood.