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Originally Posted by QuikSand
I will confess... the whole notion of wave/particle duality is something that I don't have a very good handle on, either.
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Well in layman's terms, you can take light and emit a single quantifiable amount (in photons) at an object and measure the impact - typically you can shoot a single photon of light at the substance and measure the electrons that are emitted from the substance from the impact.
This suggests that light has mass and energy - particle like attributes.
However, you can also shoot a single photon at a slit in the wall (edit) larger than a photon and measure the impact on the other side of the slit (with xray material or something). You would expect that the photons would travel right though the slit and make a single dot on the other side. Instead it makes a diffraction pattern similar to a wave hitting the slit (like waves on the surface of a pond).
Which suggests light behaves as a wave, not a single particle.
Hence the duality..