A Rational Cosmology: Why Light is Neither Particle nor Wave

Essay XLIII

This is Essay XLIII of Mr. Stolyarov's series, "A Rational Cosmology," which seeks to present objective, absolute, rationally grounded views of terms such as universe, matter, volume, space, time, motion, sound, light, forces, fields, and even the higher-order concepts of life, consciousness, and volition. See the index of all the essays in "A Rational Cosmology" here.

Our insights into cosmology thus far can quickly debunk the devastating particle/wave duality of light:

1) Light is not a particle. A particle is an entity. It should be recalled that matter is one of the ubiquitous qualities of entities. Mass is the measurement of matter, yet light is massless. Light is not an element on the periodic table, nor is it a subatomic particle, such as an electron.

Light lacks mass, thereby lacking one of the ubiquitous qualities of entities, thereby not being an entity. Light also lacks all other ubiquitous qualities of entities, including volume and any measurement in any of the three dimensions. One could hardly say, "this beam of light is half a centimeter wide, twelve centimeters long and two centimeters tall." Thus, light thoroughly fails the test for being categorized as a particle.

2) Light is not a wave. A wave is a relationship of entities, a periodic disturbance of them. In order to travel from point A to point B, a wave has to encounter continuous entities to periodically disturb! Sound waves, for example, encounter such a continuity of entities in the form of air molecules.

However, in a vacuum, where no such continuity is present, neither is there sound. Light, on the other hand, can be made manifest through a vacuum, an observation requiring no highly specialized study. One needs only look out into the night sky and realize that one is seeing celestial objects separated from the Earth by billions of kilometers of the near-total vacuum which is space. Yet, somehow, light enables one to see them nonetheless!