Volume 20: Pages 119-126, 2007
Wave/Particle Duality: The La Brea Tar Pit of Quantum Theory
Paul A. Klevgard 1
11179 Westbury Drive, San Jose, California 95131 U.S.A.
Why do photons and speeding electrons have both wave features and particle features when common sense tells us that they should be either particle or wave and not an amalgam of both? Part I of this paper deals with photons and argues that there are flaws in the assumptions we have made regarding their particle nature. The argument depends upon distinguishing between two identities of the photon, namely unstored energy and its stored (relativistic) mass. Part II extends these arguments to the case of the speeding electron and argues that current ontological assumptions made about projectiles have exacerbated our confusion about the nature of moving electrons. When regarded ontologically, projectile motion is not as simple as has been assumed by both classical and modern physics. [See also the author's www.einsteinsmethod.com.]
Keywords: duality, quantum mechanics, particle, wave, realism, projectile motion, ontology, photon, objective indefiniteness
Received: July 26, 2006; Published Online: January 8, 2009
