Why is de Broglie’s hypothesis still called a hypothesis and not a “theory”?

294 views

Considering that de Broglie’s hypothesis on the wave-particle duality of matter has already had an experimental grounding (the Davisson-Germer experiment), why is it still labelled a “hypothesis”? Are there still reasons why it is still not considered a theory?

In: 6

2 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

In this case, think of the “*hypo*” in hypothesis to mean “narrow in scope” rather than “unsupported by experiments”. This is a bit different from the typical usage of the word.

In Physics, “theories” tend to have broader scope. E.g., theory of relativity, theory of gravity, etc. These are big things that can explain or predict many different kinds of phenomena.

Comparatively, de Broglie’s hypothesis is limited to one aspect of the wave-particle duality, and may be considered *a part* of the larger theory of quantum mechanics.

You are viewing 1 out of 2 answers, click here to view all answers.