Actually, physicists insist that photons should be regarded as
both waves and particles. That's the beauty of the quantum world.
I don't understand it, because I'm a space buff, not a quantum buff, so I prefer the macrocosmic world over the microcosmic one. But I do remember having an experiment explained to me. A physicist "shoots" a discreet photon at an impenetrable metal plaque containing two narrow, parallel slits. The single photon will pass through both slits simultaneously, creating an interference pattern of interacting waves on the other side of the plaque. This proves that the photon has wave-like qualities. I know that other experiments prove that photons behave like particles.
X-rays are photons which have both particle-like and wave-like qualities, just like visible light. What separates X-rays from visible light is that X-rays have a wavelength that is much shorter. Because of their shorter wavelengths, X-rays contain much more energy than visible light. The more energy a photon contains, the shorter its corresponding wavelength will be. But why do high energy levels correspond with short wavelengths?
Imagine a hill. Let's say that the hill is a mile long and a hundred feet high. Now imagine, however, a high, sharp cliff, a hundred feet high and a hundred feet long. How many times could you fit such a cliff along a distance of a mile? Imagine that you could line up hundred-feet-long cliffs along a line a mile long. You would get very many "peaks" along this mile-long line. Compare it with the original hill, where you get just one peak per mile. The hill could be considered a wave with a long wavelength and relatively low energy. The cliff could be considered a short wavelength with high energy.
To me, one of the absolutely amazing things about reality is that light and sound "does not exist", in a way. Imagine a colorful flower, for example a very red rose. Did you know that "red" color doesn't exist? What makes this rose look red is that when white light hits it, the rose will absorb almost all the white light and just reflect the comparatively long, "red" wavelengths, whose wavelength is about 700 nanometers. When our retinas are struck by electromagnetic waves whose wavelengths are 700 nanometers, our brains will respond by saying "red!". But "red" exists inside our brains, not outside them - outside there are only electromagnetic waves with certain wavelengths. Sounds and music are just the same - our ears pick up waves with certain wavelengths, though much longer than 700 nanometers, and our brains will respond by saying "sound".
So how does Superman see color, Paul? Assuming that, like us, his eyes have receptors for blue, green and red light, he will only see the same colors as we do, all within a wavelength range of 400-700 nanometers. Superman can't possibly "see" X-rays in color. X-rays don't have color, because our brains wouldn't know how to interpret such short wavelengths as color. For comparison, imagine two bath tubs, one filled with nice warm water and one filled with cold water. Could you decide which tub contains warm water just by looking at the water? No, you couldn't, because warm water (not steaming hot water) looks just the same as cold water. Our eyes can't tell the difference. You have to touch the water to judge its temperature. So don't ask me how Superman would judge different "shades" of X-rays, but he wouldn't "see" the difference as color.
As for Superman superhuman abilities, I guess it doesn't do too much good to try to explain them scientifically. After all, if they made scientific sense, don't you think that NASA or someone else would have come up with a flying man already?
Ann
