Atomic Physics and Human Knowledge

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1. 01

   Light and matter have two faces — sometimes acting like a wave, sometimes like a particle — and no single experiment shows both at once.

   Atomic Physics and Human Knowledge · 1958

   Light and matter are both wave and particle, but never both simultaneously in a single experiment.

   Think of a coin that can land heads or tails, but never both in the same toss. An electron is similar: in one experiment it spreads out like a wave, in another it acts like a tiny ball. Bohr called this complementarity: both faces are real, but you see them one at a time.

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