In my science artwork, I chose to use a canvas to paint a confused scientist looking through a microscope, trying to figure out whether what he was observing was a wave or a particle. The scientist can’t tell the difference between the two, therefore he stands there puzzled. On another, smaller canvas, the painting of what is being observed is shown. It demonstrates the image of a particle and a wave together, stating that they co-exist My art project was done in order to explain the two main ideas of Quantum-mechanics including the wave-particle duality of electrons, as well as the perception of humans.

The wave-particle duality of electrons is a concept which explains that electrons act both as particles and as waves. What explains this theory is the double slit experiment. This analysis displays that when waves are projected to go through a double slit some of the wavelengths also hit themselves, causing them to cancel each other out as well. This also forms the interference pattern on the wall it was sent to. On the other hand, when particles are sent through one slit, they form the pattern of only what has went through the slit, meaning that it acted as a simple particle. However, when they are sent through two slits, they leave the shooting device as particles. When passing through the slits, they split in two pieces and act as waves, and go back to being particles when hitting the surface it is projected to hit. This causes the particles to interfere with each other, and creates an interference pattern, which proves that the particles also acted as waves. This is presented in my artwork in a very simple, yet effective way because the confused scientist is looking at waves and particles, unsure of what he is seeing. Meanwhile the wave and particle are stating that they are the same, which in fact, they are.

The quantum theory questions what matter is really made of, and that the perception of one, may be different than the perception of another. This means that we don’t really know if what we see is true or not. Also, it demonstrates that because of our boundaries on earth, our knowledge is limited. This causes us to be oblivious to many realities of the universe which we aren’t aware of. I represented this aspect of science on my canvas by painting the confusion of the scientist. This well represented the idea of the quantum theory, because he is clueless to what he is seeing. This showed that his perception of whether or not he was observing a wave or particle wasn’t clear, therefore proving that even if, yes they are the same, he couldn’t tell that. Although it is impossible to see such small particles through a microscope, the thought of him not being able to tell the difference because of his understanding of science was still there.

My art creation exhibited the particle-wave duality of particles, and the uncertainty of what matter really is, two of the major ideas of the Quantum theory because it is one of the subjects in science which I think is the most intriguing and mind-boggling. I think it is so interesting that the on-going states of confusion, which scientists go through, eventually lead to discovering small pieces of the truth.