A dual nature of light

Author: 
Maciej Bak

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No cheating. Have you ever looked at a beam of light and asked yourself that question? Some say it is nothing more than a wave, while others insist that light consists of lots of tiny elementary particles. However, is it possible that both of these statements prove to be true? A whole new branch of science, called quantum mechanics, deals with such issues and its latest research may shed some light on it. In physical terminology, a quantum is the minimum unit of any entity - in this case a quantum of light would be called a photon. So, are the photons able to behave like particles and still maintain their wave properties? For a better understanding of this case, try to imagine that dualism before moving on.