Number of words: 125

Particles moving in wave patterns do not exist in nature. In a water wave, for example, the water particles do not move along with the wave but move in circles as the wave passes by. Similarly, the air particles in a sound wave merely oscillate back and forth, but do not propagate along with the wave. What is transported along the wave is the disturbance causing the wave phenomenon, but not any material particle. In quantum theory, therefore, we do not speak about a particle’s trajectory when we say that the particle is also a wave. What we mean is that the wave pattern as a whole is a manifestation of the particle.

Excerpted from Page 152 of ‘The Tao of Physics’ by Fritjof Capra