One interesting phenomenon where light behaves as particles comes from photography. It was studied how a picture is formed in a photograph paper while it receives light. It was seen that the entire picture is not formed continuously, as expected if the paper receive a wave, but is formed by points that surge randomly over the picture as expected by the particle model of light.
Hi martillo, I believe you'll find that's due to the granularity of the light-sensitive medium, not the light itself.
Pete, No, I believe it is due to the particle nature of light. The photograph paper can be made as plain as needed.
No martillo. Photons are individual entities that behave like waves and hit the paper at individual points. That doesn't make them particle-like unless your definition of a particle is an "individual entity" which isn't a very good definition IMO and I don't believe is the definition physicists give to a "particle".
But give me a practical way on how an entire sea wave can be absorbed at one point! Have you ever seen something like that?
No, that would be stupid. Light waves are not synonymous with waves in the ocean. Just because they share the same name and share a few of the same characteristics, that doesn't mean they are the exact same thing. Photons are a quantum level phenomena and one thing we do know is that things on the quantum level do not behave as we'd expect on the macro-level. In part, this is because of the assumption by people like yourself that just because something is called a wave it must behave like ocean waves..
Correction, the ocean wave model of light cannot explain the photoelectric phenomena. I do not subscribe to photons behaving like ocean waves, ok?
But you wrote: Anyway, the photoelectric phenomena is not compatible with the "electromagnetic wave" model of light.
I apologize, I haven't understood the symbol. Anyway, the analogy between "electromagnetic waves" and water waves is largely used and the problem is the same. The problem of an electromagnetic wave to be absorbed by an electron is the same as sea wave to be absorbed at one point! Or can you explain how an electron can absorb a wave? Many people would like to know how...
Ok, you asked for an example where light presents the behavior of particles and I have just presented one.
Then I respectfully will just disagree with you because I do not believe the behaviour you have presented must be an attribute of a particle.
The notion of photon is directly related to the particle model of light. Energy "packages", do you remember? Photon is a synonimous of particle!
