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Photons are particles. They may not be waves.
Don’t ask me what this image is about. I was looking for streetlights on Medium’s Unsplash and found this one, portraying exactly what I wanted it to show. At the bottom of the pole, on the white background, a very clear and sharp delineation is found of sunlight creating a shadow.
Yet look closely, and you can see how the very sharp delineation is no longer very sharp once the shadow line is followed to the end of the streetlight (if that is a streetlight). Check it out on a sunny day yourself, and walk to any pole. It’s shadow will have a sharp edge for about three feet and then it starts to get blurry.
The closer the tree to the wall, the sharper the shadow lines cast by photons.
We’ve probably all heard about photons being particles that are also waves. Scientists are pretty certain about the waves, and it is as good as certain that photons are particles, too. Water, for instance, is not just a wave, but also the water particles involved in the wave. For photons, however, there is no mass considered. Still, energy is present, and as such we do have contents with properties. It’s just that we do…
