In the last video, I introduced the idea that really small things act sometimes like waves,
and sometimes like particles.
So how can we actually picture the wave-particle duality of, say, an electron?
Well, imagine our electron is a speck of dust in a raindrop.
We know pretty well where the speck is, at first.
But when the drop hits the ground, it'll spread out like a wave - and the speck of dust will
be somewhere in that wave.
So the speck (our electron) is guided by the wave - but there's still only one speck, and
if you actually look for it, you'll only find it in one place.
The wave will also tell you how likely you are to find the speck at any one point – if
the drop splits in two, you're more likely to find the speck wherever there's more water!
And that's pretty much how the wave-particle duality of quantum mechanics works: each particle
is guided by a wave that determines the chances it'll be in a certain place or state.
Easy, right?
The hard part is figuring out the movement of the waves!