Question

According to quantum mechanics, people should act like waves, too. The reason we do not exhibit wave properties is that our wavelengths are too small to observe. The reason the wavelengths of people are so small is that when finding the wavelength

Correct answer: Planck's constant is small and people masses are much larger than that.

Can anyone provide formula to prove this? Thanks!

Answer 1

The given statement is right. Every particle acts like wave (also known as wave nature duality) but for heavier objects (like people, cricket ball, car etc.), we cannot observe wave properties. Because in these cases wavelengths are too small to observe. These waves are known as matter waves. These wavelengths are calculated using the famous de Broglie's wavelength equation. Which is given as

   .....................................(1)

Where, is the wavelength of the particle

h = 6.63 x 10^-34 J-s is the Plank's constant (a very small quantity) and

p is the momentum of particle (p = mv ; m - mass , v - velocity)

Example :

An average man can run with a speed of 4 m/s . Let the mass of the man is 70 kg . We can calculate the wavelength of the man using the de Broglie equation :

  

or,

As we can see that this wavelength is too small to observe. That's why we cannot observe the wave nature of the people or other objects in our daily life. For better understanding you can calculate wavelengths for different objects using equation (1).

For any doubt please comment and please give an up vote. Thank you.