The particles initially acted like waves because each had the identical electromagnetic charge and as such repelled each other as waves do when they interact with another wave. The devise used to measure the particles had to be running off electricity. Close proximity with that device caused an interference with the particles going by it, causing their specific electronic charge to change enough that they no longer interacted with each other electromagnetically. As for your title question, matter is anything with mass. It acts like particles and waves at different times. Makes sense to me that it is caused by surrounding electromagnetic interference.
I thought I understood how this all worked with a postulate that the particles were simply vibrating and acting like waves.
The single-electron experiment crushed that idea.
Then I was totally baffled when, in the course of my Physical Chemistry series at the University of Washington, I learned of the 2 slit experiment... done with Helium Particles!!!... My brain collapsed for the next split second as I twitched and just concluded that trying to understand the workings of matter at the quantum level is akin to trying to speak the True Name of God.... and I just let it go.
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As for your title question, matter is anything with mass. It acts like particles and waves at different times. Makes sense to me that it is caused by surrounding electromagnetic interference.
I'm not going to go into specifics, but I'll just say that, the more you learn about the question, the more confused you'll become. Quantum Physics is odd like that... Understanding is inverse to Comprehension.
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The particles initially acted like waves because each had the identical electromagnetic charge and as such repelled each other as waves do when they interact with another wave. The devise used to measure the particles had to be running off electricity. Close proximity with that device caused an interference with the particles going by it, causing their specific electronic charge to change enough that they no longer interacted with each other electromagnetically. As for your title question, matter is anything with mass. It acts like particles and waves at different times. Makes sense to me that it is caused by surrounding electromagnetic interference.
The video addresses the wave-particle duality of matter and also facets of Heisenberg's uncertainty principle. Of course observing the sub atomic particles will interfere with what they do. ANY observation will consist of either removing energy from or adding energy to that which is observed. Since electrons are so small as to have their behavior affected by a single quantum of energy (provided it has the proper wavelength), we cannot observe them without changing their behavior.
I explain it to my kids by using a parallel between that and what happens in a classroom when an administrator comes in to observe the class. No matter what else goes on in the room, it is not the normal class that the administrator is there to observe. The simple act of observing changes the dynamics of the class. Even if it was observation through video camera, the light on the camera telling all they were being watched would alter how they acted.
As most anyone reading this thread already knows, matter and energy are simply two phases or states of the same stuff, interrelated by Einstein's famous (or infamous) little equation. Observing an electron - whether it is acting as a particle or as a wave at the time - alters it and it's behavior.
And this doesn't even begin to get into Hawking's 12 dimensions or string theory or any of that other neat stuff that makes your brain go OWWW!
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there are a number of things of which many people like to speak but do not understand.
Definition of matter, what is dark matter in space, strong atomic force, weak atomic force, quarks, string theory, and so on . . .
If you spend much time in theoretical physics you can lose your mind
wondering about all the improbables for which words exist but real definitions do not exist.
You have to realize that it is good to know some concepts exist but it is not good to let thinking about them become a negative thing to you.
You will find a lot people have worked out various calcutions, pronounced them in agreement with Einstein, but that is where it ends.
Let the people writing their Ph.D. work in theoretical physics chase concepts. If someone has a breakthrough Scientific American can
publish the work.
Teach
