Why Call Electrons Waves?
Most recent answer: 11/09/2011
Q:
Hello, i have a question about electrons, i understand that electrons can be considered particles, but i'm having difficulty understanding what properties of electrons makes them waves? (this is for a duality paper in AP Chem)
- Reece (age 16)
California
- Reece (age 16)
California
A:
It's nice to see a question about what sort of evidence we use. Here's a little tiny sample:
If you bounce a beam of electrons off a crystal, they bounce in special directions, just like light waves bouncing off a diffraction grating. The direction can be predicted well by the wave theory. This experiment was first done by Davisson in about 1927.
If you think of electrons as little dots, it's hard to see how they could flow as easily as they do through a metal. They'd bounce off the atoms. Waves, however, can pass through the same way that light waves pass through a diamond crystal.
If electrons were little charged dots whizzing around the nucleus of atoms, they would give off electromagnetic radiation and the atoms would collapse in a nanosecond or so. The behavior of atoms makes sense when the electrons are understood to form standing waves.
There are many, many more pieces of evidence. From a modern point of view, the electron just is a wave. Under some circumstances such waves can collapse to rather small regions, allowing the use of a particle picture for short times.
Mike W.
If you bounce a beam of electrons off a crystal, they bounce in special directions, just like light waves bouncing off a diffraction grating. The direction can be predicted well by the wave theory. This experiment was first done by Davisson in about 1927.
If you think of electrons as little dots, it's hard to see how they could flow as easily as they do through a metal. They'd bounce off the atoms. Waves, however, can pass through the same way that light waves pass through a diamond crystal.
If electrons were little charged dots whizzing around the nucleus of atoms, they would give off electromagnetic radiation and the atoms would collapse in a nanosecond or so. The behavior of atoms makes sense when the electrons are understood to form standing waves.
There are many, many more pieces of evidence. From a modern point of view, the electron just is a wave. Under some circumstances such waves can collapse to rather small regions, allowing the use of a particle picture for short times.
Mike W.
(published on 11/09/2011)