Particles as Waves: λ=h/p

Particles as Waves: λ=h/p

After people like Einstein demonstrated the particle nature of light; or photons, in 1923 Louis De Broglie came up with the theory that electrons also have a wave/particle duality, thus the electron should also have a wavelength. This theory was based on the fact that since a photon takes its momentum from it's wavelength then shouldn't a particle like an electron take it's wavelength from it's momentum?

This is the formula: λ=h/p

where λ (lambda) is the wavelength,
h is plancks constant :  6.626068 × 10^-34 m² kg / s
and p is momentum which can be determined by mass times velocity.

Let's say that in this hypothetical experiment the electron moves at 6*10^6 m/s and electrons weigh about 1*10^-30 kg.
This means the electrons have a momentum of 6*10^-24.

So 6.626068 × 10^-34 m² kg / s divided by the momentum (6*10^-24) would be 0.0000000001m (λ).

This theory gave a new light to matter - instead of only photons and light behaving as a particle/wave duality now other particles light electrons did.

But can we try it for bigger things?

Let's use a football for an example.

Say a football is kicked at about 60mph by a professional footballer (which is around 26.8 m/s).
Now lets say this football weighed 0.43 kg.
So it's momentum would be 11.524.

So 6.626068 × 10^-34 m² kg / s divided by 11.524 = 6.1*10^-35m. So yeah - pretty damn small.

Since objects like these on a macroscopic scale (e.g. a football, a human etc.) move extremely slowly to things such as subatomic particles and they weigh so much more the wavelength of these objects is always extremely small. EXTREMELY SMALL.

But according to De Broglie's theory these objects essentially still have a wave. Though this comes in handy with small things like subatomic particles, atoms or molecules rather than things like human beings.

But anyway, enjoy your wave-like nature.

Thanks for reading, Chris.