Amid the chaos of revolutionary France, one man’s mathematical obsession gave way to a calculation that now underpins much of ...

In fact it can even be in infinitely many places at the same time, exactly as a wave. Hence the notion of wave-particle duality, which is fundamental to all quantum systems.

Wave-particle duality inevitably leads to the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. All periodic processes can be analyzed using the Fourier transform. The Fourier transform decomposes a function of ...

The wave function is a mathematical description of the external attributes of a particle: its position, momentum, and rotational characteristics.

In the traditional formulation of quantum mechanics, when a particle is measured -- meaning it is found to be in one particular location -- the wave function is said to collapse.

Does light behave more like a particle, or like a wave? Today we know the surprising answer. Here's why it took so long to get there.

Simply by observing a particle in two different quantum states, you cause what is known as wave function collapse and the particle again exists in only one state or the other (and in the case of ...

Scientists have long known that light can behave as both a particle and a wave—Einstein first predicted it in 1909. But no experiment has been able to show light in both states simultaneously.

The double-slit experiment was designed to investigate whether light is a wave or a particle. It is one of the most famous and weirdest experiments in physics.