Light, Quantization, and Probability

That light has a dual nature and behaves either like a wave or like a stream of particle-like photons is a fact we must accept, although it is nonintuitive. But remember, we have no direct experience of the behavior of very small particles such as electrons. Which model we use depends on the observations we are making. The wave model is appropriate when we are considering diffraction and interference experiments, but the particle (photon) model is essential when we are considering the interaction of light with individual atoms or molecules. 

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