Dual Nature



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Compton effect or Compton scattering is the decrease in energy (increase in wavelength) of an X-ray or gamma ray photon, when it interacts with matter. The amount the wavelength increases by is called the Compton shift.

The increase in wave length is given by:

The photon revealed the particle nature of light. Assuming particle nature of light many natural phenomenons has been explained like, black body radiation. photoelectric effect etc.

Waves and particles seem to be diametrically opposed concepts: a wave fills a region in space, while an electron or ion has a well-defined location. That was the view before the discoveries of the first half of the 20th century. Those discoveries suggested that on the atomic scale, the distinction became blurred: waves had some properties of particles, and vice versa.