In 1905 Albert Einstein predicted that light was made of particles. It took only a few years for other scientists to argue with him and tell him he was wrong (this process is grandiosely referred to as the scientific method). What scientists finally agreed on - pending further application of the scientific method - was that there is no such thing as a particle. Instead everything is a wave, or wave packet. Like a wave-like particle, you know?
The way scientists describe the wave packet is that nobody understands it. It is naive to ask what it is or what the hell anyone's talking about, lest a scientific methodological assessment be made of one's intelligence. The wave packet is obtained from solving an equation - again, it is important not to ask impertinent questions about the equation. In actuality, there are many equations: Schroedinger, Klein-Gordan, Dirac, and it's imperative to use the correct one in a given context, that being the one which minimizes the chance of anyone asking a question about one's use of it.
Ghostly waves fill the universe until they are popped by *mumble mumble* at which time they instantly look like particles, which is why naive fools in the past used to talk about particles. Although no scientist can fully explain the theory, it is universally understood that somebody somewhere probably in Europe can explain it in a German accent therefore it is correct. That ends the introductory primer but I'll be happy to field questions for anyone ignorant who can't be bothered to do their own work.
The way scientists describe the wave packet is that nobody understands it. It is naive to ask what it is or what the hell anyone's talking about, lest a scientific methodological assessment be made of one's intelligence. The wave packet is obtained from solving an equation - again, it is important not to ask impertinent questions about the equation. In actuality, there are many equations: Schroedinger, Klein-Gordan, Dirac, and it's imperative to use the correct one in a given context, that being the one which minimizes the chance of anyone asking a question about one's use of it.
Ghostly waves fill the universe until they are popped by *mumble mumble* at which time they instantly look like particles, which is why naive fools in the past used to talk about particles. Although no scientist can fully explain the theory, it is universally understood that somebody somewhere probably in Europe can explain it in a German accent therefore it is correct. That ends the introductory primer but I'll be happy to field questions for anyone ignorant who can't be bothered to do their own work.
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