Wave and particle nature

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Introduction

Observe the things around you, your friend sitting next to you, a large tree across the field. How is it that you are able to see these things? What is it that is leaving your friend's arm and entering your eye so that you can see his arm? It is light. The light originally comes from the sun, or possibly a light bulb or burning fire. In physics, light is given the more technical term electromagnetic radiation, which includes all forms of light, not just the form which you can see with your eyes.

This chapter will focus on the electromagnetic (EM) radiation. Electromagnetic radiation is a self-propagating wave in space with electric and magnetic components. These components oscillate at right angles to each other and to the direction of propagation, and are in phase with each other. Electromagnetic radiation is classified into types according to the frequency of the wave: these types include, in order of increasing frequency, radio waves, microwaves, infrared radiation, visible light, ultraviolet radiation, X-rays and gamma rays.

If you watch a colony of ants walking up the wall, they look like a thin continuous black line. But as you look closer, you see that the line is made up of thousands of separated black ants.

Light and all other types of electromagnetic radiation seems like a continuous wave at first, but when one performs experiments with light, one can notice that light can have both wave and particle like properties. Just like the individual ants, the light can also be made up of individual bundles of energy, or quanta of light.

Light has both wave-like and particle-like properties (wave–particle duality), but only shows one or the other, depending on the kind of experiment we perform. A wave-type experiment shows the wave nature, and a particle-type experiment shows particle nature. One cannot test the wave and the particle nature at the same time. A particle of light is called a photon.

Photon

A photon is a quantum (energy packet) of light.

The particle nature of light can be demonstrated by the interaction of photons with matter. One way in which light interacts with matter is via the photoelectric effect, which will be studied in detail in Chapter  [link] .

1. Give examples of the behaviour of EM radiation which can best be explained using a wave model.
2. Give examples of the behaviour of EM radiation which can best be explained using a particle model.

The wave nature of electromagnetic radiation

Accelerating charges emit electromagnetic waves. We have seen that a changing electric field generates a magnetic field and a changing magnetic field generates an electric field. This is the principle behind the propagation of electromagnetic waves, because electromagnetic waves, unlike sound waves, do not need a medium to travel through. EM waves propagate when an electric field oscillating in one plane produces a magnetic field oscillating in a plane at right angles to it, which produces an oscillating electric field, and so on. The propagation of electromagnetic waves can be described as mutual induction .

These mutually regenerating fields travel through empty space at a constant speed of $3×{10}^{8}\phantom{\rule{0.166667em}{0ex}}\mathrm{m}·{\mathrm{s}}^{-1}$ , represented by $c$ .

Although an electromagnetic wave can travel through empty space, it can also travel through a medium (such as water and air). When an electromagnetic wave travels through a medium, it always travels slower than it would through empty space.

Since an electromagnetic wave is still a wave, the following equation still applies:

$v=f·\lambda$

Except that we can replace $v$ with $c$ (if we're dealing with an electromagnetic wave travelling through empty space):

$c=f·\lambda$

Calculate the frequency of an electromagnetic wave with a wavelength of $4,2×{10}^{-7}$ m

1. We use the formula: $c=f\lambda$ to calculate frequency. The speed of light is a constant $3×{10}^{8}$ m/s.

$\begin{array}{ccc}\hfill c& =& f\lambda \hfill \\ \hfill 3×{10}^{8}& =& f×4,2×{10}^{-7}\hfill \\ \hfill f& =& 7,14×{10}^{14}\mathrm{Hz}\hfill \end{array}$

An electromagnetic wave has a wavelength of $200\phantom{\rule{3.33333pt}{0ex}}\mathrm{nm}$ . What is the frequency of the radiation?

1. Recall that all radiation travels at the speed of light ( $c$ ) in vacuum. Since the question does not specify through what type of material the waveis traveling, one can assume that it is traveling through a vacuum. We can identify two properties of the radiation - $wavelength\phantom{\rule{3.33333pt}{0ex}}\left(200\phantom{\rule{3.33333pt}{0ex}}\mathrm{nm}\right)$ and speed ( $c$ ).

2. $\begin{array}{ccc}\hfill c& =& f\lambda \hfill \\ \hfill 3×{10}^{8}& =& f×200×{10}^{-9}\hfill \\ \hfill f& =& 1.5×{10}^{15}\phantom{\rule{4pt}{0ex}}\mathrm{Hz}\hfill \end{array}$

Is there any normative that regulates the use of silver nanoparticles?
what king of growth are you checking .?
Renato
What fields keep nano created devices from performing or assimulating ? Magnetic fields ? Are do they assimilate ?
why we need to study biomolecules, molecular biology in nanotechnology?
?
Kyle
yes I'm doing my masters in nanotechnology, we are being studying all these domains as well..
why?
what school?
Kyle
biomolecules are e building blocks of every organics and inorganic materials.
Joe
anyone know any internet site where one can find nanotechnology papers?
research.net
kanaga
sciencedirect big data base
Ernesto
Introduction about quantum dots in nanotechnology
what does nano mean?
nano basically means 10^(-9). nanometer is a unit to measure length.
Bharti
do you think it's worthwhile in the long term to study the effects and possibilities of nanotechnology on viral treatment?
absolutely yes
Daniel
how to know photocatalytic properties of tio2 nanoparticles...what to do now
it is a goid question and i want to know the answer as well
Maciej
Abigail
for teaching engĺish at school how nano technology help us
Anassong
Do somebody tell me a best nano engineering book for beginners?
there is no specific books for beginners but there is book called principle of nanotechnology
NANO
what is fullerene does it is used to make bukky balls
are you nano engineer ?
s.
fullerene is a bucky ball aka Carbon 60 molecule. It was name by the architect Fuller. He design the geodesic dome. it resembles a soccer ball.
Tarell
what is the actual application of fullerenes nowadays?
Damian
That is a great question Damian. best way to answer that question is to Google it. there are hundreds of applications for buck minister fullerenes, from medical to aerospace. you can also find plenty of research papers that will give you great detail on the potential applications of fullerenes.
Tarell
what is the Synthesis, properties,and applications of carbon nano chemistry
Mostly, they use nano carbon for electronics and for materials to be strengthened.
Virgil
is Bucky paper clear?
CYNTHIA
carbon nanotubes has various application in fuel cells membrane, current research on cancer drug,and in electronics MEMS and NEMS etc
NANO
so some one know about replacing silicon atom with phosphorous in semiconductors device?
Yeah, it is a pain to say the least. You basically have to heat the substarte up to around 1000 degrees celcius then pass phosphene gas over top of it, which is explosive and toxic by the way, under very low pressure.
Harper
Do you know which machine is used to that process?
s.
how to fabricate graphene ink ?
for screen printed electrodes ?
SUYASH
What is lattice structure?
of graphene you mean?
Ebrahim
or in general
Ebrahim
in general
s.
Graphene has a hexagonal structure
tahir
On having this app for quite a bit time, Haven't realised there's a chat room in it.
Cied
what is biological synthesis of nanoparticles
how did you get the value of 2000N.What calculations are needed to arrive at it
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The fundamental frequency of a sonometer wire streached by a load of relative density 's'are n¹ and n² when the load is in air and completly immersed in water respectively then the lation n²/na is
Properties of longitudinal waves