Wave-Particle Duality Legacy Redirect

Continue at the canonical note

Use Wave-Particle Duality for the full student-facing explanation, figures, equations and exam guidance.

Overview

This compatibility page preserves older links that point to repo Topic 24. The full teaching note is now a branch of Quantum Physics.

Repo navigation is not syllabus numbering

Topic 24 is an internal wiki location, not a separate official syllabus topic. The Singapore-Cambridge H2 Physics 9749 syllabus places wave–particle duality within Topic 19: Quantum Physics, together with the photoelectric effect, atomic energy levels, line spectra, X-ray spectra and the uncertainty principle.

Core Ideas

In the canonical branch, make sure you can:

• distinguish wave evidence for light—interference and diffraction—from particle evidence for light—the photoelectric effect;
• relate photon energy to frequency using $E=hf$;
• describe electron diffraction as evidence that matter particles have wave behaviour;
• calculate a particle’s de Broglie wavelength using $\lambda =h/p$;
• connect localisation and momentum spread using the assessed order-of-magnitude relation $\Delta p\Delta x\gtrsim h$.

These points correspond mainly to official outcomes 19(a–c), 19(i–j) and 19(o). Learn them as part of the connected Topic 19 framework rather than as an isolated chapter.

Exam Relevance

For revision and exam preparation, use the Topic 23 branch note rather than this redirect page. The redirect is useful only for navigation and for remembering that wave-particle duality belongs inside the connected 9749 quantum-physics outcome set.

Core Versus Enrichment

Assessed Core

• photon energy $E=hf$;
• wave and particle evidence for electromagnetic radiation;
• electron diffraction as wave evidence for particles;
• de Broglie wavelength $\lambda =h/p$;
• the position–momentum relation $\Delta p\Delta x\gtrsim h$.

Enrichment in the Canonical Branch

• photon momentum as a separately derived extension;
• single-particle interference build-up;
• wavefunctions and probability-density formalism;
• scanning tunnelling microscopy and nanotechnology examples.

The enrichment material is useful for deeper understanding, but it should not be mistaken for an additional set of required 9749 Topic 19 outcomes.

Links

1. Study Wave-Particle Duality.
2. Use Quantum Physics to see how the evidence connects to the rest of official Topic 19.
3. Review Uncertainty Principle for the assessed form $\Delta p\Delta x\gtrsim h$.

This redirect intentionally remains concise so that the wiki has one authoritative teaching note rather than two diverging copies.