Particular Interpretation of Double-Slit Experiments

 

Following the failure of classical physics theories to explain the interference patterns observed in double slit experiments and other light diffraction experiments and because of the similarities between these patterns and the interference patterns generated by waves at the surface of a liquid, physicists deduced that light was behaving as a wave but only the particle model could explain phenomena such as the photoelectric effect. Consequently, it was assumed that light was corpuscular or wave-like depending on the experiment performed on it. But what these experiments show is that neither accepted models of light could explain both behaviours and emphasized the need for a new theory.