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Message: <blockquote data-quote="freyar" data-source="post: 6873710" data-attributes="member: 40227">Actually, no, we also use amplitudes to describe the interactions of particles.  It's all quantum mechanics, and the calculation always proceeds by finding the amplitude and then squaring for the probability.  If you're familiar with Feynman diagrams, those are all amplitudes.  In fact, not all the calculations would be self-consistent if it weren't for specific cancellations and additions between the diagrams.Both, if I understand what you mean.  There are two equivalent mathematical ways to describe a particle in a double slit experiment.  One is to solve the Schrodinger equation (or appropriate relativistic generalization) describing the wavefunction in the experiment.  That automatically shows you the constructive and destructive interference.  The other method is to consider every possible path through the experiment (including weird discontinuous paths) with an amplitude assigned to each path, which you add up to find the interference patterns.  In a usual double slit experiment, the straight-line paths through the slits are the main contributions.I think the reason it seems that way is that you don't have the full mathematical description.  The wavefunction of two photons is not mathematically the same as the wavefunction of a single photon.  In fact, they don't even depend on the same number of variables.  Locally, it's still different</blockquote>