Quanta, Wave-Particle Duality and the Uncertainty Principle: Difference between revisions
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==== Introduction ==== | ==== Introduction ==== | ||
A "curved" spacetime is already strange enough, but here we have to deal with a new level of paratoxicity. Energy that is not continuous but comes in "packets", waves that may have particle behavior and particles that may have wave behavior, and to top it all, the | A "curved" spacetime is already strange enough, but here we have to deal with a new level of paratoxicity. Energy that is not continuous but comes in "packets", waves that may have particle behavior and particles that may have wave behavior, and to top it all, the Uncertainty Principle. | ||
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==== [[Quanta]] ==== | ==== [[Quanta]] ==== | ||
The work that needs to be done here will depend to a large extend on the work on the previous section on the [[Electrostatic Field and EM Waves]]. When we have a clearer picture of EM waves as curvature fluctuations that propagate in spacetime with the speed of light (or maybe the "speed of time"; see [[Speed of Light and the "Rate of Propagation of Time"]]), hopefully it will be easier to see how these fluctuations can be quantized as to the energy they carry. | |||
Maybe this happens through the existence of a minimal length interval, or a minimal time interval, or most probably both. At such scales, we are looking at the "pixels" of spacetime (and a pixel has both minimal length and minimal width). Or there could also be "gaps" between successive discrete intervals. | |||
Based on that, perhaps it will be easier to see what the uncertainty principle really means, what exactly wave-particle duality is, and if the wavefunction describes any real entity or it is a statistical description of phenomena that are deterministic to a greater or lesser extend (and if such a thing as its notorious collapse really exists). | |||
Revision as of 17:21, 7 January 2007
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Introduction
A "curved" spacetime is already strange enough, but here we have to deal with a new level of paratoxicity. Energy that is not continuous but comes in "packets", waves that may have particle behavior and particles that may have wave behavior, and to top it all, the Uncertainty Principle.
Quanta
The work that needs to be done here will depend to a large extend on the work on the previous section on the Electrostatic Field and EM Waves. When we have a clearer picture of EM waves as curvature fluctuations that propagate in spacetime with the speed of light (or maybe the "speed of time"; see Speed of Light and the "Rate of Propagation of Time"), hopefully it will be easier to see how these fluctuations can be quantized as to the energy they carry.
Maybe this happens through the existence of a minimal length interval, or a minimal time interval, or most probably both. At such scales, we are looking at the "pixels" of spacetime (and a pixel has both minimal length and minimal width). Or there could also be "gaps" between successive discrete intervals.
Based on that, perhaps it will be easier to see what the uncertainty principle really means, what exactly wave-particle duality is, and if the wavefunction describes any real entity or it is a statistical description of phenomena that are deterministic to a greater or lesser extend (and if such a thing as its notorious collapse really exists).
Wave-Particle Duality
The Uncertainty Principle
See also