Freaky Fzx Friday - Electrons are WAVES

Do you think electrons shed tiny quantum tears when they realize that we don't understand them?

I mean, seriously, 120 years after their discovery and over a century after scientists observed the wave nature of electrons, the average person has no idea that the electron is nothing like a planet.  The problem is exacerbated by important organizations and popular television programs promulgating the lie.  If I were an electron, I would be sad.

                   

US Nuclear Regulatory Commission                            Big Bang Theory on TV

Here is a better image showing the probablistic nature of the electrons.  It represents the most probable location of electrons.  They act as waves most of the time

Electrons don't act like particles until they run into something.  They're waves.  Similar to electromagnetic waves, they travel as waves and collide as particles.  The difference is that EM waves don't exist at anything but the speed of light.  See last week's Freaky Fzx Friday for more on wave-particle duality. 

Light microscopes are limited by the wavelength of light - we can't see anything smaller than the wavelength of light even with the best optics possible.  

So we use electron microscopes.  The faster it travels the smaller the wavelength of the electron is.  Transmission Electron Microscopes use the wave nature of electrons

So remember that those electron microscopes depend on the wave nature of electrons.

And unless you want electrons shedding tears all over the universe, always keep in mind that they're waves most of the time.