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If we use the mass of the electron traveling at 1 x 105 meters per second, we get a wavelength of about 7.3 x 10-9m, which is about the same size as the radius of an atom. At this speed, the electron can "orbit" the hydrogen nucleus over 3 million times in one second! It would appear that the electron is everywhere at once! Treating the electron as a wave just might be the right way to handle this problem.
Wiki User
∙ 11y ago
Wiki User
∙ 11y agoIn quantum mechanics (usually applied to sub-atomic particles like electrons) all matter shows behaviour of both a wave and a particle. This is known as wave-particle duality.
A famous experiment for showing this the double slit experiment. In this experiment electrons are fired through a panel with two tiny slits in it, onto some film which changes colour when electrons collide with it.
When observed using equipment to detect particles the electrons pass through in a straight line onto the film and create a pattern in the shape of the slits. Only two lines show up. The electrons appear to move through in a straight line onto the film. The electrons when observed as particles show particle behaviour.
However when observed with equipment for detecting waves, a different pattern occurs on the film. When the electrons move through the tiny slit they move out in the way a wave would. They move out in a cone like a flash light. Waves have highs and lows. A high cancels out a low. Two lows become a low of more amplitude, as do two highs. What this causes is a pattern of several blurry lines showing up on the film after they have been fired through. This is a wave effect called an interference pattern.
Wiki User
∙ 11y agoYes. When you shoot individual electrons throught a double slit or off a crystal, you will see an interference pattern. In other words, adding a second slit makes it LESS likely an electron will go through the first slit and hit certain parts of the detector screen.
Wiki User
∙ 8y agoElectrons act like waves when wave properties are tested for; although it's important to say, they also act like particles when particle properties are tested for. This answers to the duality of matter observable at the quantum level, they evidence behaviors of both waves and particles. An example of situations where wave behavior is noticed would be in a double-path or double-slit experiment, where (wave-like) interference patterns appear.
Wiki User
∙ 12y agoBy dint of sufficient mental effort.
If you meant to ask "what wave properties do electrons exhibit", then one of them is interference fringes.
Wiki User
∙ 8y agoThis is called wave-particle duality.
Wiki User
∙ 6y agoYes, it is possible.
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What is De broglie's theory?
To describe the de Broglie wave equation, we need to back up just a bit and look at something regarding fundamental particles. One of the curiosities of physics is the idea of wave-particle duality. When we inspect a fundamental particle, like the electron for example, we find that it can be looked at either as a particle or as a wave. A particle has mass, and it has both momentum and some amount of energy associated with it. Both momentum and energy are associated with matter. A wave, on the other hand, has both wavelength and frequency characteristic of that wave. Frequency and wavelength are associated with a wave. In wave-particle duality, the particle has to have a way its mass can be equated with the wave. And de Broglie stepped in to supply the equations that specify the relationship between the momentum and energy of a particle, and the frequency and wavelength of it's equivalent wave. Use the link below to check out the formula and learn more. These two equations are simple and easy, and it would be wise to look them over.
Does electron cross the node?
Yes, an electron crosses the node in its orbital. This is possible since an electron functions as a wave, not a particle. At the node, the electron has no up or down movement. This is similar to wave to pass through a rope being held stationary in the center.
Electromagnetic radiation behaves like a particle when it?
Light can behave as a particle and a wave at the same time. An example of light acting as both a particle and a wave is the digital camera---the lens refracts (bends and focuses) waves of light that hit a charge-coupled device (CCD). The photons kick electrons out of the silicon in the CCD. The electrons are detected by electronics that interpret the number of electrons released and their position of release from the silicon to create an image. Another example is when you observe the build-up of the alternating light and dark pattern from diffraction (a wave phenomenon) from light passing through a narrow slit. You see one bright spot (a photon), then another bright spot (another photon), then another... until the diffraction pattern is created from all of the accumulated photons. This happens so quickly that it is undetectable to the human eye.
Wave mechanical model?
the waves produced by an electron confined in its orbit about the nucleus sets up a "standing wave",( a specific number of "bounces" each second), of specific wavelength, energy and frequency (i.e., Bohr's energy levels) like a rubber band when stretched and released.
Who is DeBroglie?
Louis de Broglie was a French physicist and Nobel Prize Winner best known for wave-particle duality. He laid out the converse idea of Einstein's that a wave is a particle. According to de Broglie, a particle is a wave. He was awarded the 1929 Nobel Prize for physics.
What two ways do electrons behave?
Any particle, such as an electron, also behaves as a wave (as well as behaving like a particle).
When do photons behave more like a wave?
When we design an experiment that detects wave behavior. They behave more like particles when we design the experiment to detect particle behavior.
How does light behave as a wave and as a particle?
The wave behavior can be seen in phenomena such as interference.The particle behavior can be seen, among other things, in the photoelectric effect.
Is an electron a standing wave?
No -- an electron is a point particle with mass, charge, and spin. The probability that you will find an electron at a specific point can, however, often be calculated by wave functions. Any moving mass can be considered either a particle or a wave. Its properties can be defined via the deBorlie wave equation.
Is an alpha a particle or a wave?
Beta is a particle. In beta- it is an electron and an electron antineutrino. In beta+ it is a positron and an electron neutrino.
What subatomic particle has the longest wave length a neutron proton electron or alpha particle?
energy
Who explained the wave nature and the particle nature of an electron?
That their was a unit of charge, for which no smaller amount of charge could exist, was first suggested in the late 1800s. In 1896, J.J. Thomson showed that a negatively charged particle was a fundamental particle of nature -- ie, that electrons had a particle nature. Louis de Broglie, in his 1924 thesis, suggested that electrons also had a wave nature, with a wavelength dependent on a particle's momentum. Experiments in 1927 showed that he was correct.
Is electron a particle or a ware?
Particle or wave? It is both or either, depending on how it is observed, as is everything else in quantum mechanics.
Who produced mathematical equations to describe the wave-like behavior of electron?
Erwin Schrödinger. However, the wave-like behavior of his famous equation is actually a probability function that can be applied to any quantum state, not just position and not just for an electron.
What is the motion of an electron inside a spherical region of uniform unit charge if its kinetic energy is simple harmonic motion about the center of the sphere?
The motion of an electron inside a spherical region of uniform unit charge if its kinetic energy is simple harmonic motion about the center of the sphere is a wave. That is, its motion can be expressed as that of a wave. On the surface, this appears to be a question about the wave-nature of the electron. It was discovered by a cat named DeBroglie that the motion of an electron (and other things) could be described by a mathematical "gimmick" called a wave function. We now call this the de Broglie hypothesis. Recall that when we wander about the quantum mechanical universe, we find that there are a number of instances where something in that area of ever-so-small things acts both like a particle and like a wave. It will, depending on the way we observe the behavior of this "thing" we're looking at, act like one or the other. This leads to the idea of wave-particle duality. And it was Louis de Broglie who ideated this stuff. Light is electromagnetic energy, but light acts like a particle in some instances. An electron is a particle, the fundamental carrier of the negative electrostatic charge. But its behavior can be expressed in terms of a wave function (de Broglie's wave mechanics). It was de Broglie who joined light to the "regular matter" of the quantum mechanical universe with this idea, which he put forth in his PhD thesis. He bagged a Nobel Prize for this work, and he deserved it. Bottom line here is that the electron can be viewed through the lens of a wave equation (a wave function) when it is sailing around in the quantum mechanical world. Links can be found below to relevant posts.
An electron is sent through a screen with two slits The electron is not detectedwatched as it goes through the slits What slit or slits does the electron go through?
Crazily enough, both. The electron behaves like a wave in this case, not a particle.
Does light behave primarily as a wave or as a particle when it interacts with a detector?
-- If the detector is designed to detect wave characteristics, then light exhibits all the characteristics and behavior of a wave when it encounters that detector. -- If the detector is designed to detect particle characteristics, then light exhibits all the characteristics and behavior of a particle when it encounters that detector.
