Re: Surviving Einstein.

From: Douglas A. Gwyn (DAGwyn_at_null.net)
Date: 06/30/03 

Date: Mon, 30 Jun 2003 12:31:23 -0400

Martin Green wrote:
> But it doesn't contradict classical wave theory.

Oh, yes, it does. The detected event is always
particle-like (e.g. a scintillation). Classical
wave theory cannot explain that.

> The problem goes away if you treat light as a wave.

It isn't just light, it's electrons etc. too.
Electrons come in units (evidenced by their charge
as in the Millikan oil-drop experiment), have well-
defined rest mass, follow point-like trajectories
when not bound in an atom, and in many other ways
act like particles and not like waves. And so
does light; Einstein was awarded the Nobel prize
for his work on the photoelectric effect, wherein
light clearly has particle-like properties.

While the interference pattern is wave-like, it
isn't the electron itself that is a wave, rather
some sort of propensity. This propensity is such
that it interferes with itself via addition of
ordered pairs of real amplitude values, the norm
of which using metric ((1,0),(0,-1)) accurately
predicts the relative probability of existence of
the particle at that event. This amounts to using
complex numbers for the amplitude. The big issue
is why. Nothing in classical wave experience
suggests that this should be the way to describe
particle trajectories.

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