Talking about both photons and electrons. Uncertainty principle is about position and momentum, but electron is considered wave?
We have mathematical model of light being EM Waves, what does it being particle even mean?
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Quantum mechanics is tricky. One of the best ways to understand particle wave duality is through the classical double slit experiment.
On the experiment we have 3 things. First we have a source of light that fires one photon at a time. Next we have a barrier with 2 thin slits cut into it. On the opposite side of the barrier we have a surface that will detect where the single photon we fired lands. All we do then is fire photon after photon at the slits and see where it impacts on the sensor, then record that.
If a photon is purely a particle, the pattern of impacts on the detector surface will be 2 slits as the particles won’t be able to impact the sensor shaded by the barrier. However, this is not what we see. What we actually see is a series of vertical stripes of dense impact areas. This means a photon isn’t acting like a particle. It is acting like a wave. If you were to propel a water wave through those slits you’d find a similar pattern of peaks.
How is this possible? Well photons and electrons are so small and moving so fast they they act like waves. So that’s how we describe them mathematical. They are a single measurable amount of stuff, that acts like a wave when in motion until it impacts something or is measured. Once it is measured it resolves to a single packet of stuff.
That last part is where the Heisenberg uncertainty principle comes from. If we measure the location of the photon or electron we can’t know its motion or waveform. We forced it to resolve to a particle for that instant. However if we observe it’s wave form or motion we can’t know the exact location of the photon or electron because it is existing as a wave of probability.
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