How did Davisson confirm de Broglie's hypothesis?
We confirmed de Broglie's hypothesis through careful, hands-on experimentation. The apparatus must be understood before the theory. We used a vacuum tube to accelerate electrons to a known energy, then directed them at a single crystal of nickel. By measuring the intensity of scattered electrons as a function of angle with a galvanometer, we observed a pronounced peak at about 50 degrees for 54-electron-volt electrons. This peak corresponded to constructive interference from the crystal's atomic planes, exactly as de Broglie's wave equation predicted: the electron wavelength λ = h/p, where h is Planck's constant and p is momentum. We repeated the experiment with different voltages and crystal orientations, and the data spoke for themselves—the diffraction pattern was consistent with wave behavior, not particle scattering. This was not a metaphor; it was a fact of the laboratory.
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