Eli5 what is a “wave”?

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So when people say light exists as a particle and a wave, I understand what it means in terms of different behavior, but what “is” a wave? A photon is a light particle, is a light wave “made” of anything? Is a light wave just a way that a photon expresses itself? Is it just “energy”? But then, what is energy? Is a microwave “made” of anything, or is it just a way of describing how heat/light behaves under certain conditions?

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Anonymous 0 Comments

A wave is a repeated variation of… something. If the variation can be described in terms of a *frequency* (how often the variation repeats) a *wavelength* (how far apart the repeated bits of the variation are) and an *amplitude* (how much the… something… varies within each repetition) then it’s a wave.

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