roberth
07-29-2016, 14:35
I blew away my original OP so now I have rebuilt this OP.
The exact nature of visible light is a mystery that has puzzled man for centuries. Greek scientists from the ancient Pythagorean discipline postulated that every visible object emits a steady stream of particles, while Aristotle concluded that light travels in a manner similar to waves in the ocean. Even though these ideas have undergone numerous modifications and a significant degree of evolution over the past 20 centuries, the essence of the dispute established by the Greek philosophers remains to this day.
https://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/primer/lightandcolor/particleorwave.html
Technically, the headlines are not incorrect. Yet, to me and others (https://briankoberlein.com/2015/03/04/two-for-one/), they imply something more radical than what was actually observed. To cut to the chase, an individual photon cannot be observed acting as both a pure particle and wave at the same time. But if you assemble a group of many different photons, you can observe some acting like particles and others acting like waves. Many stories did not make this clear.
https://www.insidescience.org/news/no-you-cannot-catch-individual-photon-acting-simultaneously-pure-particle-and-wave
Shape of a Photon
Physicists created a hologram of a single light particle, a feat previously thought impossible. Cathal O’Connell reports.
https://cosmosmagazine.com/physics/what-shape-is-a-photon
The exact nature of visible light is a mystery that has puzzled man for centuries. Greek scientists from the ancient Pythagorean discipline postulated that every visible object emits a steady stream of particles, while Aristotle concluded that light travels in a manner similar to waves in the ocean. Even though these ideas have undergone numerous modifications and a significant degree of evolution over the past 20 centuries, the essence of the dispute established by the Greek philosophers remains to this day.
https://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/primer/lightandcolor/particleorwave.html
Technically, the headlines are not incorrect. Yet, to me and others (https://briankoberlein.com/2015/03/04/two-for-one/), they imply something more radical than what was actually observed. To cut to the chase, an individual photon cannot be observed acting as both a pure particle and wave at the same time. But if you assemble a group of many different photons, you can observe some acting like particles and others acting like waves. Many stories did not make this clear.
https://www.insidescience.org/news/no-you-cannot-catch-individual-photon-acting-simultaneously-pure-particle-and-wave
Shape of a Photon
Physicists created a hologram of a single light particle, a feat previously thought impossible. Cathal O’Connell reports.
https://cosmosmagazine.com/physics/what-shape-is-a-photon