The Wave-Particle Duality of Matter and Energy

Describe the wave-particle duality of matter and energy and the theories and experiments that led to it (particle wavelength, electron diffraction, photon momentum, uncertainty principle) ( 7.3) (SP 7.3) (EPs 7.27-7.34)... 

Electrons exhibit diffraction, just as light waves do, and photons exhibit transfer of momentum, just as objects do. This wave-particle duality of matter and energy is observable only on the atomic scale. 

The series of Radioactive disintegrations the uranium-radium series, the uranium-actinium series, the thorium series, and the neptunium series. The age of the earth. The fundamental particles electron, proton, positron, neutron, positive, negative, and neutral mesons, neutrino. The photon (light quantum) the energy of a photon, hv. Planck s constant. The wave-particle duality of light and of matter. The wavelengths of electrons. 

The uncertainty principle, an important relation that is a consequence of quantum mechanics, was discovered by the German physicist Werner Heisenberg (born 1901) in 1927. Heisenberg showed that as a result of the wave-particle duality of matter it is impossible to carry out simultaneously a precise determination of the position of a particle and of its velocity. He also showed that it is impossible to determine exactly the energy of a system at an instant of time. 

The truth is that both matter and energy show both behaviors each possesses both faces. In some experiments, we observe one face in other experiments, we observe the other face. The distinction between a particle and a wave is meaningful only in the macroscopic world, not in the atomic world. The distinction between matter and energy is in our minds and our limiting definitions, not inherent in nature. This dual character of matter and energy is known as the wave-particle duality. 

The key new ideas of qnantnm mechanics include the quantization of energy, a probabilistic description of particle motion, wave-particle duality, and indeterminacy. These ideas appear foreign to ns because they are inconsistent with our experience of the macroscopic world. We have accepted them because they have provided the most comprehensive account of the behavior of matter and radiation and because the agreement between theory and the results of all experiments conducted to date has been astonishingly accurate. 

Wave-particle duality means that matter has wavelike properties and energy has particle-like properties. These properties become observable only at the atomic scale. Because of wave-particle duality, we can never know the exact position and momentum of an electron simultaneously [uncertainty principle). 

Quantum chemistry is the appfication of quantum mechanical principles and equations to the study of molecules. In order to nnderstand matter at its most fundamental level, we must use quantum mechanical models and methods. There are two aspects of quantum mechanics that make it different from previous models of matter. The first is the concept of wave-particle duality that is, the notion that we need to think of very small objects (such as electrons) as having characteristics of both particles and waves. Second, quantum mechanical models correctly predict that the energy of atoms and molecules is always quantized, meaning that they may have only specific amounts of energy. Quantum chemical theories allow us to explain the structure of the periodic table, and quantum chemical calculations allow us to accurately predict the structures of molecules and the spectroscopic behavior of atoms and molecules. 

An instability-induced grand transition from quantum vacuum to material existence might have created our universe. Energy and entropy gradients mediated duality developments and transitions between fermions and bosons, particles and waves, structure and phase into the process-information dualities of life patterns. At the interface to the universe, life patterns developed a preliminary finite duality between existent matter and self-consciousness fields. By this grand transition a facility of awareness beyond space and time originated that transformed its theses/antitheses tensions into creativity. 

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