How can light be both a particle and a wave?

Question

I usually see myself as being pretty solid on my general science knowledge, but this one continues to stump me.

Light is photons, little particles that move through space… but then it’s also a wave, like the visible light portion of the electromagnetic spectrum? How can it be both? How would photons red shift over great distances? Do we just not know what light is, really?

In: 9

Answer 1

This is one of the biggest science questions stumping everyone. If you could actually ELI5 you’d be a shoo-in for a Nobel Prize