The Natural Philosophy of Photons: On the Nature of Electromagnetic Waves

This paper explores the nature of the photon through the double-slit thought experiment, demonstrating that it is not a wave-particle duality. The essence of the photon is that of a pure particle. The double-slit thought experiment concerning photons is pivotal in proving that photons, along with other particles such as electrons, atoms, and macromolecules, are purely particulate in nature. Between the double-slit partition and the screen, photons do not produce coherence or the superposition of probability wave functions. Instead, they generate alternating bright and dark fringes through repeated oscillations between the slits and the detection screen. Within space, photons can interfere with each other's paths based on their momentum, simultaneously altering their trajectories and even their velocities. Thus, a beam of photons possessing greater momentum may carry along a portion of lower-momentum photons, propagating them over considerable distances. By examining the wavelength of electromagnetic waves, the intrinsic relationship between electromagnetic waves and photons is revealed. This establishes that electromagnetic waves are fundamentally pure particle-wave phenomena of photons. The wavelength of an electromagnetic wave essentially represents the spatial distance between consecutive photons as they advance in formation through space. The longer the wavelength of an electromagnetic wave, the greater the distance between successive photons, causing them to diverge more widely in space, as seen with radio waves. Conversely, shorter wavelengths result in closer spacing between photons, leading to more concentrated emission and a pronounced directionality, exemplified by gamma rays. Within the visible spectrum of electromagnetic waves, humans can occasionally transmit information bearing specific content via photons. This information, conveyed through photons, can traverse distances ranging from metres to thousands of kilometres, where it is received and discerned by another individual.