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Re: Just what is a particle?

Then you are making nature mysterious by imposing your
"idealizations" upon it. It's a free country, but I question your taste!
Regards,
Jack

Adam was by constitution and proclivity a scientist; I was the same, and
we loved to call ourselves by that great name...Our first memorable
scientific discovery was the law that water and like fluids run downhill,
not up.
Mark Twain, <Extract from Eve's Autobiography>

On Fri, 18 Feb 2000, Glenn A. Carlson wrote:

Waves diffract, constructively and destructively interfere, disperse,
etc.; particles do not. Particles collide with other particles (i.e.,
they exchange energy and momentum with other particles over short
distances and times), have definite momentum and position, etc.; waves
do not.

"Wave" and "particle" are idealizations. Pointing out that "particle
beams interfere" does not refute the usual meaning of these terms,
but, rather, it illustrates the meaning of "wave-particle duality,"
i.e., electrons and photons, for example, are neither wave nor
particle, but, depending on the circumstances, behave **as if** they
were one or the other.

For particles, think of billiard balls; for waves, think of water
waves. To the extent that this distinction becomes cloudy (or even
contradictory) in a particular real situation, we glimpse the mystery
of nature.

Glenn A. Carlson, P.E.
St. Peters, MO
gcarlson@mail.win.org

Subject: Just what is a particle?
Date: Thu, 17 Feb 2000 17:29:57 -0600
From: Cliff Parker <cparker@CHARTER.NET>

Hugh Haskell wrote in an earlier post -- Photons are particles (not like
electrons or protons, but particles nevertheless)

I would like some discussion on this point as I try to clarify my thinking.
What characteristics are necessarily present in order to call something a
particle? I have listed a few characteristics particles often seem to have and
thoughts about how each may apply to photons. Comments, clarifications,
disagreements, and instructions are hereby solicited.

[snip]


Cliff Parker