A
alokmohan
Guest
Electron degeneracy issomewhat like human clautrophobia.When matter is squeezed to a density 10000 times higher than rock,the cloud of electrons aruond each of its atomic nuclei gets squashed 10000 fold.Each electronthereby gets confined to a cell with 10000times smaller volume than the one it previously was allowedto move around in.With so little spce available to it ,the electron ,like a claustrophobic human,starts to shake uncontroably.It flies about its tiny cell at high speed, kicking with great force against adjacent electrons in their cells. This 'degenerate motion', as physicists call it, can not be stopped by cooling the matter. Nothing can stop it; it is forced on the electron by the laws of quantum mechanics, even when the matter is at absolute zero temperature.<br /><br />This degenerate motion is a feature of matter that Newtonian physicists never dreamed of ,a feature called wave/particle duality:every kind of particle ,according to quantum mechanis ,sometimes behave like a wave ,and every type of wave sometimes behave like a partcle.Thus waves and particles are really the same thing,"a thing" that somtimes behave like a wave and sometimes behave like a particle.