ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

DeBroglie hypothesis

Okay, let's imagine you have a toy car. You can push it forward or pull it back to make it move, right? Now, let's think about tiny particles, like electrons, which are too small for us to see with our eyes. Scientists discovered that these particles can also move like your toy car, but in a different way.

A long time ago, a clever scientist named Louis de Broglie had an idea about how these tiny particles move. He thought that they could have a "wave-like" behavior, just like a wave in the ocean, that could help us understand their movements better. This idea is called the de Broglie hypothesis.

Imagine you have a trampoline in your backyard, and you throw a ball onto the trampoline. When the ball hits the surface of the trampoline, it creates a bump, and the bump starts to ripple outwards like a wave. This wave carries energy and information about the ball's movement.

In a similar way, de Broglie thought that tiny particles like electrons could also have a wave-like behavior. This means that when they move, they create a wave that carries energy and information about their movement. This wave is not a physical wave like the ones we see in the ocean or on a trampoline, but it's a kind of wave that helps us understand how electrons move around atoms and molecules.

Now, imagine you have a toy car that can drive through a tunnel, and the tunnel has a few different paths that the car can take. If you push the car with a certain amount of strength, it will follow one of the paths, and if you push it harder, it might follow a different path.

In the same way, electrons have different paths they can take when they move around atoms and molecules. But the de Broglie hypothesis helps us understand that the energy and momentum of the electron is what determines which path the electron takes. The energy and momentum are like the "push" you give to your toy car that determines which path it takes through the tunnel.

So, the de Broglie hypothesis helps us understand the wave-like behavior of tiny particles like electrons, and how their energy and momentum affect their movements. It's a bit complicated, but it's a cool way to explore the fascinating world of quantum mechanics!