Starlight When I consider how star lieht is sent Through depths of space inquanta large and small; And ~hotonsdance wherever lieht raw fall A tune that's scored by waves in naught; and bent By prisms, or split by lines minutely ruled Into a multicolored spectral bandWhat is this light which so illumes my hand That I can see these words? If I'm well schooled In phyaics classical I surely know That light, diffracted as it is, must be An undulating field. But then we see That light from bodies black appears not so, But clearly acts as though particulate. The stars both waves and quanta radiate.
Graduate School University of Florida Gainesville. 32601
Thoughts While Watching Television Electrons stream across the space between The cathode and the fluorescknt screen. What are these streams which bend in mamet fields. Toward which a positive pole attranion wields? As Millikan's charged oil drops demonstrate Electrons are discrete, particulate, And uniform in charge. But then we've seen That when these streams impinge on metals clean They are diffracted as are beams of light And hence are waves. This paradox is quite A general one, for all material things Appear to undulate. And nature flings Before us now the dare to understand How nuclei, or stars, or grains of sand Both waves and particles at once can be. It's true, but how is still a mystery. Harry H.Sisler
Volume 54, Number 4, AprN 1977 1 203
