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It is possible to understand how and why electromagnetic radiation can have of both the particle and wave properties described by Richard P Feynman in his book "QED The Strange Theory of Light and Matter" by defining it in terms of a resonant system generated by the passage of matter wave on a "surface" of a three-dimensional space manifold with respect to a fourth *spatial* dimension
On pages 17 thru 23 he discusses what happens when light is partially reflected by two surfaces. He demonstrates by placing two glass surfaces exactly parallel to each other one can observe how the photons of light reflected from the bottom surface interact with those reflected from the top surface. Depending on the distance between the glass surfaces he can determine, by using a photo detector, that four percent or 4 out of 100 photons reflected from the lower surface of the glass could add up to as many as 16 or none at all when they interact with the photons reflected from the upper surface of the glass.
These observations by Mr. Feynman support a wave theory of electromagnetic radiation because according to it, the energy associated with the interference of 4 photons with 4 others will result in energy variations that corresponds to the energy of 0 to 16 photons.
However, wave theory also predicts the energy variations should be continuous.
In other words, the energy of the reflected photons should be able to take on any value between 0 and the combined energies associated with 16 photons.
Unfortunately, for the wave theory of light, the energy of the reflected photons Richard Feynman observed in the above experiment only took on integral values equal to the energy of the photons that originally struck the surface of the glass. This indicates that their energy is not transmitted by a wave but by a particle of energy.
However, this apparent contraction between their wave and particle properties can be resolved if they are, as mentioned earlier is viewed in terms of a resonant "system" generated by the passage of matter wave on a "surface" of a three-dimensional space manifold with respect to a fourth *spatial* dimension.
Chapter one postulated that space is composed of four *spatial* dimensions.
In Chapter two, it was shown one can derive the particle properties of a photon in terms of a classically resonating "system" formed in space by a matter wave on a "surface" of a three-dimensional space manifold with respect to a fourth *spatial* dimension
Chapter three derived the propagation of their energy in terms of a matter wave moving at the velocity of on a "surface" of a three-dimensional space manifold with respect to a fourth *spatial* dimension.
(Louis de Broglie was the first to theorize that all particles had a wave component. His theories were confirmed by the discovery of electron diffraction by crystals in 1927 by Davisson and Germer.)
Therefore, Chapters two and three answers the question regarding how and why electromagnetic radiation can behave at times like a wave and at other times like a particle because it can define a common mechanism related to a matter wave moving in four *spatial* dimensions responsible for those behaviors.
The wave like interference of photons observed by Mr. Feynman would be due to the wave properties of the resonant "system" defined in Chapter two.
If the distance between the two glass surfaces in Richard Feynman's experiment is equal to half of the wavelength of the resonant "system", the interference of its wave properties will yield the energy associated with 0 photons.
If the distance between two glass surfaces is equal to its wavelength, the interference of their wave properties of will yield the energy associated with 16 photons.
However, this does not explain how and why the energy variations caused by their interference are quantized and not continuous as wave theory predicts they should.
The reason is because, as was shown in Chapters two and three they are propagated by a "standing" or resonant matter wave moving at the velocity of light on a "surface" of a three-dimensional space manifold with respect to a fourth *spatial* dimension.
Since the energy of each photon is fixed by its resonant parameters it can only interact or interfere with the wave properties of other photons to generate other one's with those same resonant parameters.
Therefore, energy variations caused by the interference of their wave properties can only have the discrete or quantum values associated with the resonant "systems" of the those photons.
This indicates viewing a photon in terms of a resonant "system" generated by a matter wave moving on a "surface" of a three-dimensional space manifold with respect to a fourth *spatial* dimension can explain and predict both their particle and wave properties.
However, defining its energy in terms of a resonant property of a matter wave also makes it possible to analyze their paths between two reflective surfaces in terms of their energy amplitudes, as Richard P Feynman did in his book "QED".
In Richard Feynman’s book "QED", he analyzed the process by which 4 photons are reflected from bottom surface of two pieces of glass in terms of the direction of their energy amplitudes. When light is reflected from a single surface, the directions of energy amplitudes of the reflected photons are randomly varying with respect to photons impacting the surface. However, when photons are reflected from two surfaces the timing or direction of the energy amplitude can be synchronize between the top and bottom surfaces so they can be made to cancel or reinforce each other. As a result 4 photons reflected form the bottom surface can cause as few as 0 photons or as many as 8 photons to arrive at the top surface.
The vector properties of amplitude of a matter wave define the mechanism responsible for the synchronization of the energy amplitude of photons that Richard Feynman mentions in his book "QED".
The direction of its energy amplitude would vary sinusoidally with respect to distance. This means that it would be possible to synchronize the direction and amplitude of it between the top and bottom reflective surfaces so that as few as 0 photons or as many as 8 photons to arrive at the top surface.
When the directional amplitudes of the 4 photons reflected from the top surface are opposite to those that are impacting the bottom surface, they will cancel and no photons reflected from the bottom surface will arrive at the top surface. When the directional amplitudes of the ones reflected from the bottom surface are the same as to those that are impacting the bottom surface, they will add and 8 photons reflected from the bottom surface will arrive at the top surface.
Therefore, defining a photon in terms of a matter wave in a continuous non-quantized mass component of space defines a mechanism that allowed Mr. Richard Feynman to analyze the process by which 4 photons are reflected from two surfaces in terms of the direction of their energy amplitudes.
The universe's
most powerful enabling tool is not
knowledge or understanding but
imagination
because it extends the reality of
one's environment.
Copyright 1995 Jeffrey O'Callaghan
