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Physics Assignment: Assignment Done By, Ajin Frank J R19LC001

1) The document discusses the concept of wave-particle duality in quantum mechanics, which holds that every particle or quantum entity can be described as either a particle or a wave. 2) It describes how physicists like Planck, Einstein, de Broglie, Compton, Bohr, and others developed the theory through experiments showing particles exhibit wave properties and vice versa. 3) The document then examines de Broglie's hypothesis that all matter exhibits wave properties, and shows his derivation of the equation relating a particle's momentum to its wavelength.

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Justin Karunakaran
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177 views

Physics Assignment: Assignment Done By, Ajin Frank J R19LC001

1) The document discusses the concept of wave-particle duality in quantum mechanics, which holds that every particle or quantum entity can be described as either a particle or a wave. 2) It describes how physicists like Planck, Einstein, de Broglie, Compton, Bohr, and others developed the theory through experiments showing particles exhibit wave properties and vice versa. 3) The document then examines de Broglie's hypothesis that all matter exhibits wave properties, and shows his derivation of the equation relating a particle's momentum to its wavelength.

Uploaded by

Justin Karunakaran
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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PHYSICS ASSIGNMENT

ECM

OCTOBER 16, 2019


ASSIGNMENT DONE BY,
AJIN FRANK J
R19LC001
Wave Particle Duality

Wave–particle duality is the concept in quantum mechanics


that every particle or quantum entity may be described as either a particle
or a wave. It expresses the inability of the classical concepts "particle" or
"wave" to fully describe the behaviour of quantum-scale objects. As
Albert Einstein wrote
It seems as though we must use sometimes the one theory and sometimes
the other, while at times we may use either. We are faced with a new kind
of difficulty. We have two contradictory pictures of reality; separately
neither of them fully explains the phenomena of light, but together they
do.
Through the work of Max Planck, Albert Einstein, Louis de Broglie,
Arthur Compton, Niels Bohr, and many others, current scientific theory
holds that all particles exhibit a wave nature and vice versa.For
macroscopic particles, because of their extremely short wavelengths,
wave properties usually cannot be detected.

Although the use of the wave-particle duality has worked well in physics,
the meaning or interpretation has not been satisfactorily resolved; see
Interpretations of quantum mechanics.
Bohr regarded the "duality paradox" as a fundamental or metaphysical
fact of nature. A given kind of quantum object will exhibit sometimes
wave, sometimes particle, character, in respectively different physical
settings. He saw such duality as one aspect of the concept of
complementarity.

Werner Heisenberg considered the question further. He saw the duality as


present for all quantic entities, but not quite in the usual quantum
mechanical account considered by Bohr. He saw it in what is called
second quantization, which generates an entirely new concept of fields
that exist in ordinary space-time, causality still being visualizable.
Classical field values (e.g. the electric and magnetic field strengths of
Maxwell) are replaced by an entirely new kind of field value, as
considered in quantum field theory. Turning the reasoning around,
ordinary quantum mechanics can be deduced as a specialized
consequence of quantum field theory.
Superposition Principle

The superposition principle, superposition property, states that, for all


linear systems, the net response caused by two or more stimuli is the sum
of the responses that would have been caused by each stimulus
individually. So that if input A produces response X and input B produces
response Y then input (A + B) produces response (X + Y).
This principle has many applications in physics and engineering because
many physical systems can be modeled as linear systems. For example, a
beam can be modeled as a linear system where the input stimulus is the
load on the beam and the output response is the deflection of the beam.
The importance of linear systems is that they are easier to analyze
mathematically; there is a large body of mathematical techniques,
frequency domain linear transform methods such as Fourier, Laplace
transforms, and linear operator theory, that are applicable. Because
physical systems are generally only approximately linear, the
superposition principle is only an approximation of the true physical
behaviour.
The superposition principle applies to any linear system, including
algebraic equations, linear differential equations, and systems of
equations of those forms. The stimuli and responses could be numbers,
functions, vectors, vector fields, time-varying signals, or any other object
that satisfies certain axioms. Note that when vectors or vector fields are
involved, a superposition is interpreted as a vector sum.
De Broglie Hypothesis

The De Broglie hypothesis proposes that all matter exhibits wave-like


properties and relates the observed wavelength of matter to its
momentum. After Albert Einstein's photon theory became accepted, the
question became whether this was true only for light or whether material
objects also exhibited wave-like behavior. Here is how the De Broglie
hypothesis was developed.

De Broglie's Thesis
In his 1923 (or 1924, depending on the source) doctoral dissertation, the
French physicist Louis de Broglie made a bold assertion. Considering
Einstein's relationship of wavelength lambda to momentum p, de Broglie
proposed that this relationship would determine the wavelength of any
matter, in the relationship:
lambda = h / p
recall that h is Planck's constant
This wavelength is called the de Broglie wavelength. The reason he chose
the momentum equation over the energy equation is that it was unclear,
with matter, whether E should be total energy, kinetic energy, or total
relativistic energy. For photons, they are all the same, but not so for
matter.
Assuming the momentum relationship, however, allowed the derivation
of a similar de Broglie relationship for frequency f using the kinetic energy
Ek:
f = Ek / h.
Expression for De Broglie Wavelength for
Material Particles

De Broglie derived his equation using well established theories through


the following series of substitutions:
De Broglie first used Einstein's famous equation relating matter and
energy:
E=mc2(1)(1)E=mc2
with
 EE = energy,
 mm = mass,
 cc = speed of light
Using Planck's theory which states every quantum of a wave has a discrete
amount of energy given by Planck's equation:
E=hν(2)(2)E=hν
with
 E = energy,
 h = Plank's constant (6.62607 x 10-34 J s),
 ν = frequency
Since de Broglie believed particles and wave have the same traits, he
hypothesized that the two energies would be equal:
mc2=hν(3)(3)mc2=hν
Because real particles do not travel at the speed of light, De Broglie
submitted velocity (vv ) for the speed of light (cc ).
mv2=hν(4)(4)mv2=hν
Through the equation λλ , de Broglie substituted v/λv/λ for νν and arrived
at the final expression that relates wavelength and particle with speed.
mv2=hvλ(5)(5)mv2=hvλ
Hence
λ=hvmv2=hmv(6)(6)λ=hvmv2=hmv
A majority of Wave-Particle Duality problems are simple plug and chug
via Equation 66 with some variation of canceling out units.

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