complementarity principle
- complementarity principle
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the principle that experiments on physical systems of atomic size or smaller, as electrons or photons, can exhibit either particle or wave behavior but not both simultaneously.
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in physics, tenet that a complete knowledge of phenomena on atomic dimensions requires a description of both wave and particle properties. The principle was announced in 1928 by the Danish physicist Niels Bohr (
Bohr, Niels). Depending on the experimental arrangement, the behaviour of such phenomena as light and electrons is sometimes wavelike and sometimes particle-like;
i.e., such things have a
wave-particle duality (
q.v.). It is impossible to observe both the wave and particle aspects simultaneously. Together, however, they present a fuller description than either of the two taken alone.
In effect, the complementarity principle implies that phenomena on the atomic and subatomic scale are not strictly like large-scale particles or waves (e.g., billiard balls and water waves). Such particle and wave characteristics in the same large-scale phenomenon are incompatible rather than complementary. Knowledge of a small-scale phenomenon, however, is essentially incomplete until both aspects are known.
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Universalium.
2010.
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complementarity principle — papildomumo principas statusas T sritis fizika atitikmenys: angl. complementarity principle vok. Ergänzungsprinzip, n; Komplementaritätsprinzip, n rus. принцип дополнительности, m pranc. principe de complémentarité, m … Fizikos terminų žodynas
complementarity principle — Physics. the principle that experiments on physical systems of atomic size or smaller, as electrons or photons, can exhibit either particle or wave behavior but not both simultaneously … Useful english dictionary
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