Knowledge and Wave/Particle Duality
Hi Reilly -- Causality is half the knowledge equation. I liken the duality as follows - causality vs polarity. Causal elements are determinate, while polar elements are indeterminate.
What this means is that from the level of a polar world, we see duality or the yin/yang, dark/light, hot/cold etc manifestations around us. While from a causal perspective, there is no duality. Rather there is a single source which in time reveals dualistic elements. But at the moment of causation, it's a singularity. This explains the problems Einstein dealt with concerning light - namely how could light be both a wave and a particle? The wave is causal, the particles are polar.
Don
Hi Don -- Interesting indeed. Your singular source is pretty much like the Big Bang. The duality it creates, then, is composed of energy and matter, which of course can be transformed into each other. Another thought about causality vs polarity. One of the peculiar aspects of chaos theory and/or non-linear dynamics is that there are causal systems that for all intensive purposes behave in a random fashion. They would be observed as random systems. Is it live, or is it Memorex?
Except when teaching undergraduates, physicists don't typically worry about the wave-particle duality that is observed in Nature. You are quite right - the wave is causal, described by the deterministic Schrödinger equation. The solutions of this equation determine the probabilities governing the electron's or photon's behaviour.
Bohr's point was that phenomena at the microscopic, atomic level need not and do not operate the same way as macroscopic phenomena - macroscopic concepts do not necessarily apply at the atomic level. Sort of: accept what's there, and don't worry about it. That's what professional physicists do, for the most part - duality is a given - period. To some degree, the wave or particle is an artifact of the measuring process. Wave particle duality: we accept, but somewhat under duress.
Great posting.
Thanks,