Because light is a little shit that no amount of disciplining can bring into line.

>>7748848
Because photons are ripples themselves. Not little balls.

>>7748848
What is a particle? How can you try and say that photons do not exist as a waveform if you think they are literally balls wibbling around in space

>>7748848
I think what's more strange is that other particles behave in a similar way, and that in conjunction with the fact that these other particles can be 'turned into' photons.

>>7748848
>behaves as waves
Also [citation needed]
Photons are emitted and absorbed as particles, though the particle trajectories appear reminiscent of what would happen if they were behaving like waves, it remains to be seen if this is the most apt description of what actually happens ;)

>>7748859
what? explain
arent they just normal particles ie balls?

>>7748887
Is all energy the same but acting differently?

>>7748848
Feynman can explain this better than I can. Check out QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter; it's an excellent and non-dumb layman's introduction to precisely this.

The simple answer is that those individual photons have very wave-like properties, such as frequency, phase, and interference, which give rise to classical wave behavior over large distances and number of photons.

>>7748906
I know that when you look down they seem small, but photons are not balls.

>>7748906
No. In fact, no particles behave as balls on small enough scales. Even "matter" particles such as electrons have a wavelength, phase, and can interfere constructively and destructively. (This is why electron microscopes work).

>>7748907
Not necessarily, quantum theory suggests that there are different forms that arise as excitations in the different quantum fields that make up spacetime

>>7748906

see fig.5

http://profmattstrassler.com/articles-and-posts/particle-physics-basics/virtual-particles-what-are-they/

>>7748908
https://www.scribd.com/mobile/book/287019869/QED-The-Strange-Theory-of-Light-and-Matter

>>7748924
Seriously, read this. It's a quick read and very illuminating.

>>7748923
so whats the difference between a photon particle and a disturbance in the electromagnetic field?

>>7748929
ill check it out thanks man

>>7748940
A particle doesn't exist, everything is ripples in fields. What we see as particles are strong waves, virtual particles are 'failed waves' just ripples that die out but cause the strong waves to separate or come together (forces).

An analogy (and nothing more) would be
the vortexes in this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnbJEg9r1o8

Everything is fields rippling.

http://youtu.be/RwdY7Eqyguo?t=14m40s

>>7748924
A good video explaining a chapter from the book is

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1GdgD77AQ4

>>7748940
>so whats the difference between a photon particle and a disturbance in the electromagnetic field?

A photon IS a disturbance in the EM field. That's what light is. But it can only be created or absorbed in multiples of a a certain quantity of energy, depending on its frequency. A "disturbance" where that multiple = one is what we call a photon.

Wave particle duality bitch