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  • In the last video, I introduced the idea that really small things act sometimes like waves,

  • and sometimes like particles.

  • So how can we actually picture the wave-particle duality of, say, an electron?

  • Well, imagine our electron is a speck of dust in a raindrop.

  • We know pretty well where the speck is, at first.

  • But when the drop hits the ground, it'll spread out like a wave - and the speck of dust will

  • be somewhere in that wave.

  • So the speck (our electron) is guided by the wave - but there's still only one speck, and

  • if you actually look for it, you'll only find it in one place.

  • The wave will also tell you how likely you are to find the speck at any one pointif

  • the drop splits in two, you're more likely to find the speck wherever there's more water!

  • And that's pretty much how the wave-particle duality of quantum mechanics works: each particle

  • is guided by a wave that determines the chances it'll be in a certain place or state.

  • Easy, right?

  • The hard part is figuring out the movement of the waves!

In the last video, I introduced the idea that really small things act sometimes like waves,

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