Einstein proved light is simultaneously particles and waves, reconciling opposites.
Evidence
My father’s life changed, or so he told me, when he read Albert Einstein’s answer: they were all right! Light is, at once, a stream of particles and a series of waves. But how could that be? Particles differ fundamentally from waves. They are located at only one point at any particular moment in time, they have momentum, and they move only in a straight line unless and until something gets in their way. Waves, by contrast, are oscillations of a medium, which is what allows them to turn corners and transport energy in many different directions at once. To prove, as Einstein had done, that light was both particles and waves was to admit that something can be two utterly contradictory things at once. — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism, 56
Categorization
- DEFINE: Explains the wave-particle duality of light clearly for a lay reader.
- corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism, 56
- XREF: connects to: Pre-Einstein physics split over whether light was a wave or a particle. — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism, 55; Quantum mechanics predicts particles pass through both slits simultaneously. — Hawking, Stephen, A Brief History of Time, 110; Opposing waves do not annihilate because their energy just shifts form. — Ville Pulkki, Matti Karjalainen, Communication Acoustics- An…, 181
Broader Connections
- Pre-Einstein physics split over whether light was a wave or a particle.
#responds-to(0.85) — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism, 55 - Quantum mechanics predicts particles pass through both slits simultaneously.
#expands(0.75) — Hawking, Stephen, A Brief History of Time, 110 - Opposing waves do not annihilate because their energy just shifts form.
#corroborates(0.70) — Ville Pulkki, Matti Karjalainen, Communication Acoustics- An…, 181