Wave/Particle Dualism

From a TSW reader:



Knowing how busy you must be, I want to be brief in expressing my gratitude after reading The Scientific Worldview. It has been nearly life-changing for me. And at 55 years, that's some feat. I am a scientific novice, but have always been interested in science and have always deemed it as our highest priority. You have articulated many of my own ideas, but was unable to adequately express.


I was wondering how you would elaborate on the issue of wave/particle dualism.


Again, thank you.



P.S. I hope you are planning more books in the future.



Thanks ever so much for your kind comments on TSW. It is always wonderful to hear from grateful readers. It helps to make all the work of writing a book worth it.

About wave/particle dualism: I have not seen an adequate explanation of that particular experiment. However, I think of light as the motion of particles, not as the particles themselves. Thus light waves, like water waves and sound waves, are collective motions. For water, the particles are H2O; for sound, the particles are N2 and O2; for light, the particles are photons within the ether. Light therefore is not the ether or the photons in the ether, but one of the many types of motion within the ether. The interaction of light waves, water waves, or sound waves with other matter always involves particle-to-particle contact (e.g., for light it is the photoelectric effect). Light, like time, is not matter, but the motion of matter. In other words, it is not matter, but what matter does. According to the assumption of INSEPARABILITY this treatment of light as motion instead of matter absolutely requires a medium, traditionally termed the “ether,” for which much evidence has accumulated over the past decade (e.g., Galaev, 2002; Gift, 2004, 2006, 2007) despite Einstein’s assumption that MM1887 proved that it does not exist. Looks like I will have to reevaluate the wave/particle experiment—maybe this could be the start of another book…


Gift, Stephan J.G., 2004, The invalidation of a sacred principle of modern physics: Physics Essays, v. 17, no. 3, p. 338-341.
Gift, S.J.G., 2006, Experimental Detection of the Ether: Proceedings of the Natural Philosophy Alliance, v. 3, no. 1, p. 37-43.
Gift, S.J.G., 2007, Light speed invariance is a remarkable illusion: Proceedings of the Natural Philosophy Alliance, v. 4, no. 1, p. 60-65.
Galaev, Y.M., 2002, The measuring of ether-drift velocity and kinematic ether viscosity within optical waves band (English translation): Spacetime & Substance, v. 3, no. 5, p. 207-224.

Michelson, A.A., and Morley, E.W., 1887, On the relative motion of the earth and the luminiferous ether: American Journal of Science, v. 39, p. 333-345.