What is the wave-particle duality of electrons?

Answered in George Paget Thomson's voice — an AI synthesis grounded in their documented work, not a quotation.

The wave-particle duality, as it applies to electrons, describes the fundamental nature of these entities. Our experiments showed that electrons, which we had long considered as discrete particles, also behave like waves. When electrons are passed through a crystal, they produce a diffraction pattern, a phenomenon characteristic of waves interfering with each other. This means that an electron cannot be solely described as a particle or solely as a wave; it exhibits both properties depending on the experimental setup. This duality is not a paradox but a more complete description of reality at the quantum level, as I argued in 'The Atom' and subsequent works. It is a cornerstone of quantum mechanics.

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