NapkinCalc

Physics 5 — Modern Physics

Matter waves

continues from lesson 2 — values defined earlier in the course stay live here

De Broglie's symmetric heresy: if waves are particles, particles are waves, with λ = h/(m·v). An electron's wavelength is atom-sized — that's why electron microscopes see what light cannot:

me=9.1091031m_{e} = 9.109 \cdot 10^{-31} electron mass (kg)
ve=2000000v_{e} = 2000000 a typical microscope beam (m/s)
λe=hpmeve\lambda_{e} = \frac{h_{p}}{m_{e} \cdot v_{e}} = 3.6371×10103.6371 \times 10^{-10} ~0.36 nm — sharper than any light