Correct me if im wrong. A Photon is like a single partical of

Are particles are assumed to be points

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>>7640630
String->Sphere->Wave->Sphere->String

Rinse repeat, though Wave and String are interchangeable then comparable on the bounds of the Fourier transformation

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>>7640630

A wave packet

Learn about Fourier Transforms

nobody know, so making a thread for a bunch of idiots to mindlessly speculate is just dumb

A photon is known to be a "packet".

>>7640630
There is no consensus on a single, definitive shape or form yet.

>>7640630
It used to be considered as a particle, so it would only have position. Then it was proven that it acts like a wave and there are various theories about it. In any way, it doesn't have any shape. Shape is a property of a group of particles, you can't apply it to single photon.

>>7640630
>photons
>real

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>>7645373
>Any year
>Being this retarded

>>7646365
>1899
>mention a packet of light to anyone
>think they're retards for not thinking they're real

>>7640630

it is a particle and a wave according to quantum physics

google "double slit experiment"

>>7640674
>>7642597
Not quite m8, the solution to the time dependent schrodinger equation is a wave packet, but thats the wavefunction, which specifies the state of a system, but is NOT an observable. The actual particles we can interact with and make measurements of in the lab behave like points

>>7642533
>>7643981
the 'technically' correct answer

What is a wave physically made up of?

how can it be both a wave and a particle at the same time
my mind is full of fuck
halp
im just a plebein polisci major

>>7647808
in QM a wavefunction isn't physically manifest in the traditional sense, it just governs the behavior of physical obervations that are made

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>>7647808

some waves look like this and are made of their medium

electromagnetic waves are different tho

>>7647821
waves are not 'made of' their medium, they are a form of energy storage that is spatially and temporally periodic

also not all waves require a medium, as you pointed out with EM

>>7647807
Observables are overrated.

>>7647811
>how can it be both a wave and a particle at the same time

If you're not going to go very deep into it, just realize that sometimes it's better to think of it as a point and other times at a wave. It has the properties of both depending on how you look at it.

>>7647853
go study string theory then you smarmy fucc