Wave- particle duality

Wave- particle duality

1. The photoelectric effect

   • Shows light behaving as a particle
     • Einstein explained it by thinking of the beam of light as a series of particle-like photons
     • Since a photon is a quantised packet of energy, it can interact with an electron
       • The energy in the photon is given to the electron

2. The wave-particle duality theory

   • if photons showed particle properties, particles (like electrons) would be expected to show wave-like properties

3. Electron diffraction shows the wave nature of electrons

   • When accelerated electrons in a vacuum interact with the spaces in a graphite crystal, diffraction patterns are observed.
     • This confirms that electrons act in a wave-like way
       • However, particles only act in this way if they interact with an object of around the same size