photonic and partical nature of light
Posted in Technology on Apr 4th, 2008
photonic and partical nature of light
all of us know that the light have particle and photonic nature. Why????
How one thing can have too nature?
It is not only light that displays dual properties of wave and particle. Even matter displays dual properties.
The wavelength (?x) of a photon is expressed as
?x ? (h/2?)/?p
where (?p) is the momentum. Now the Plank’s constant is extremely small (6.62*10^-34). If you apply this equation to what we know as a particle, say a football weighing 1 kg and having a velocity of 10mt/s, it would result in a wavelength of the order of 10^30. This is so small as compared to the size of the ball that you would not be able to see anything wavelike. If you consider the velocity of the photon as 10^8mt/s, the value of wavelength would be similar to the wavelenght of the photon. This is the reason why the photon, or any subatomic particle for that matter, can show the properties of both wave and particles.