In physics and chemistry, wave–particle duality is the concept that all matter and energy exhibits both wave-like and particle-like properties. A central concept of quantum mechanics, duality addresses the inadequacy of classical concepts like "particle" and "wave" in fully describing the behaviour of small-scale objects. Various interpretations of quantum mechanics attempt to explain this ostensible paradox.

Wave-particle duality should be distinguished from wave-particle complementarity, the latter implying that matter can demonstrate both particle and wave characteristics, but not both at the same time (that is, not within one and the same experimental arrangement). The idea of duality is rooted in a debate over the nature of light and matter dating back to the 1600s, when competing theories of light were proposed by Christiaan Huygens and Isaac Newton: light was thought either to consist of waves (Huygens) or of particles (Newton). Through the work of Albert Einstein, Louis de Broglie, and many others, current scientific theory holds that all particles also have a wave nature (and vice versa).

The only distinction in this regard is that in different contexts, because of mass or energy or frequency, some matter seems more particle-like than wave-like; in other contexts, or with reduced values of energy etc., the same matter will more obviously show wave-like qualities than particle-like. This phenomenon has been verified not only for elementary particles, but also for compound particles like atoms and even molecules. In fact, according to traditional formulations of non-relativistic quantum mechanics, wave–particle duality applies to all objects, even macroscopic ones; we can't detect wave properties of macroscopic objects due to their small wavelengths.

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