Wave Particle Duality Solved?
I've been researching about waves for a while now and the very nature of all waves is somewhat counter intuitive. Waves don't have that many characteristics but they do have some odd characteristics. Take diffraction for instance. When a wave of any kind passes through an aperture of a size less than the wavelength the wave will diffract or spread out in all directions. However if the aperture is larger than the wavelength the wave continue on as if it were a ray. The reason it does this is that a wave is not a particle but many particles that are perhaps vibrating regardless of the wave direction. Wave causes a bunching up into a crest or a depletion zone called a trough. Both are potential energy. The energy is usually in the crests and the troughs. Basically a wave is a configuration where stuff gets bunched up or un bunched and what those things want to do is become de-bunched un-depleted as in holes needing to be filled. Waves are seen as spreading out from a center point of an event such as kid doing a cannon ball into a pool. As concentric rings around the kid form and spread out the rings get bigger and bigger but the size of the crest gets smaller and smaller. What is also true is that at every point on its journey away from the origin it molecules are spreading out in all directions in the very same way as it did in at the origin. The reason it doesn't form more concentric rings is that the spreading along arc of the crest reinforces it. Actually though it's as if small rings are forming at each point away from the origin. They just reinforce the original wave. This is why wave spreads from an aperture smaller than the wavelength in all directions instead of continuing on as a ray. After a wave passes through an aperture smaller than the wavelength there is no more crest on either side of the wave to prevent it from spreading in all directions so it is able to spread out in all directions from the aperture. If the aperture is wide however the wave will continue on its way because there are waves on either side. The waves do spread out on the sides and die out however in the case of a laser the crest line though tiny to us is very mush longer than the wavelength and so it travels in the same direction a very long way however it still weakens with the square of the distance just like regular light. Actually though this may not be the case. A laser is like sunlight. since the wave-front of a laser is perfectly flat the distance to the origin can be said to be infinite. It's like sunlight. The wave-front of the sunlight is so far away it's virtually infinite to us. This is even more true of starlight. So you could say the laser light weakens with the square of the distance where distance is an arbitrarily large number. How much would a laser weaken with the square of infinity?
So what occurred to me is that if light took on a random path it would behave very much like water waves. Just as water waves are constantly spreading in all directions so light as well is traveling in all directions randomly changing course. Thus the patterns it creates in large numbers are the same as with water waves however it travels much faster. Perhaps the path of light rather than in a straight line it's more like lighting. You might ask why does it travel in rays? Or how could a laser be possible then. The idea is that if the photon is in the area of the ray it will be coherent however if it should move outside the ray it will not be coherent and its position will be random. So whether it's alone or in a group however it will create a wave pattern in a sense. It's position at any given time will more likely be those places where there are crests.
This model of light though makes certain changes to the original view where a single photon would have a wavelength. In my view many photons comprise a single wave. The number of photons in a wave determines its wavelength and it's amplitude. Another possibility is that a photons random motion might be the result of it's wavelength. How much it changes direction is equal to it's wavelength. Also perhaps light changes direction randomly but in a single plane. This would explain it's polarization.
Anyway I digress. My main point though as a non physicist is a simple one and it's this:
Waves are similar to particles however they are made up of particles that aren't traveling in the direction of the wave. Water molecules themselves as well as the direction of the wave is actually in all directions all the time. Only the wave-front has a direction but the energy is actually moving in all directions all the time. I've heard that photons also don't travel in a straight line. If they travel in random directions then as a group they will behave like a wave because the particles themselves are traveling in the same direction as the molecules of a water wave (in all directions) however in the case of light it's the particles motion rather than the energy that is traveling in all directions. The net result though is a wave pattern. Just as particles in water move a small amount in all directions away from the crest and towards the troughs perhaps photons travel in all directions away from the crests of the light wave. Since wave energy is somewhat blocked in the direction of the wave-front so too perhaps a light particle is repelled by adjacent particles. Perhaps this is caused by magnetism.
What will also result however is that even individual photons emitted one at a time will eventually create a sort of wave pattern. Although I guess there is the problem of the adjacent photons. Perhaps that's again purpose the magnetism. Photons and electrons have a very strong relationship.
One thing is certain though and that is if light follows random paths why would it behave as if it were a particle? Sure light can be a particle but if it's path is random but it's not likely to behave the same as balls going through a double slit. If their path is arbitrary and not in a straight line then why would it create the same two stripes of the double slit? Who knows maybe particles that follow random paths will create a diffraction pattern. Anyway that's what I'm postulating. It should be somewhat testable in a simulation. I'd wait and test it myself but this is so simple an idea that it's bound to be figured out at any time. Perhaps at any given time there are more or less likely places for the photon to be and given enough photons traveling in random patterns you would end up seeing waves of particles moving about. Perhaps another analogy is where you often find commuters traveling down a freeway. There will be dense patches of cars and less dense patches perhaps this is the result of changing lanes. perhaps a photons are like waves on a river. Just because something is moving doesn't mean it's not also exhibiting wavelike properties. This seems an easily testable hypothesis so it's science even if it's wrong.
So what occurred to me is that if light took on a random path it would behave very much like water waves. Just as water waves are constantly spreading in all directions so light as well is traveling in all directions randomly changing course. Thus the patterns it creates in large numbers are the same as with water waves however it travels much faster. Perhaps the path of light rather than in a straight line it's more like lighting. You might ask why does it travel in rays? Or how could a laser be possible then. The idea is that if the photon is in the area of the ray it will be coherent however if it should move outside the ray it will not be coherent and its position will be random. So whether it's alone or in a group however it will create a wave pattern in a sense. It's position at any given time will more likely be those places where there are crests.
This model of light though makes certain changes to the original view where a single photon would have a wavelength. In my view many photons comprise a single wave. The number of photons in a wave determines its wavelength and it's amplitude. Another possibility is that a photons random motion might be the result of it's wavelength. How much it changes direction is equal to it's wavelength. Also perhaps light changes direction randomly but in a single plane. This would explain it's polarization.
Anyway I digress. My main point though as a non physicist is a simple one and it's this:
Waves are similar to particles however they are made up of particles that aren't traveling in the direction of the wave. Water molecules themselves as well as the direction of the wave is actually in all directions all the time. Only the wave-front has a direction but the energy is actually moving in all directions all the time. I've heard that photons also don't travel in a straight line. If they travel in random directions then as a group they will behave like a wave because the particles themselves are traveling in the same direction as the molecules of a water wave (in all directions) however in the case of light it's the particles motion rather than the energy that is traveling in all directions. The net result though is a wave pattern. Just as particles in water move a small amount in all directions away from the crest and towards the troughs perhaps photons travel in all directions away from the crests of the light wave. Since wave energy is somewhat blocked in the direction of the wave-front so too perhaps a light particle is repelled by adjacent particles. Perhaps this is caused by magnetism.
What will also result however is that even individual photons emitted one at a time will eventually create a sort of wave pattern. Although I guess there is the problem of the adjacent photons. Perhaps that's again purpose the magnetism. Photons and electrons have a very strong relationship.
One thing is certain though and that is if light follows random paths why would it behave as if it were a particle? Sure light can be a particle but if it's path is random but it's not likely to behave the same as balls going through a double slit. If their path is arbitrary and not in a straight line then why would it create the same two stripes of the double slit? Who knows maybe particles that follow random paths will create a diffraction pattern. Anyway that's what I'm postulating. It should be somewhat testable in a simulation. I'd wait and test it myself but this is so simple an idea that it's bound to be figured out at any time. Perhaps at any given time there are more or less likely places for the photon to be and given enough photons traveling in random patterns you would end up seeing waves of particles moving about. Perhaps another analogy is where you often find commuters traveling down a freeway. There will be dense patches of cars and less dense patches perhaps this is the result of changing lanes. perhaps a photons are like waves on a river. Just because something is moving doesn't mean it's not also exhibiting wavelike properties. This seems an easily testable hypothesis so it's science even if it's wrong.
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