Conceptual Physics (12th Edition)

Published by Addison-Wesley
ISBN 10: 0321909100
ISBN 13: 978-0-32190-910-7

Chapter 31 - Think and Discuss - Page 599: 75

Answer

My response is that what we do know is that, like light, an electron travels from one place to another like a wave. What we also know is that it behaves as a particle when it interacts with a detector. What we cannot and should not assume is that the electron must be one or the other.

Work Step by Step

The complementarity principle (pages 595-596) says the electron can exhibit the complementary properties of either, depending on the observation that we make.
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