Waves, Particles, and Minds

Abstract

Classical mechanics developed during the nineteenth century—due principally to the work of James Clerk Maxwell—into a form that involved two different kinds of physical stuff: “particles” and “waves”. Electrons are the prime example of particles, whereas “light”, in the form of the electromagnetic field, is the prime example of a wave. Particles are tiny, highly-localized structures, each with a center that, at each instant of time, is situated at one precise point in three-dimensional space, with the rest of the particle lying nearby.