Incorrect Mental Models
How should we teach people complex subjects, such as Quantum Mechanics?
Every TV program about Quantum Mechanics uses phrases such as an electron behaves like a wave and a particle. I don't like this. IMHO, an electron behaves like neither. It behaves like a wave function!
Why do we try to explain something complicated by lying? I think we should try to change people's mental models instead.
When we lie, we only confuse. A common question about quantum mechanics is : How does an electron know when to behave like a particle, and when to behave like a wave?
To me, the answer is clear. It never behaves like either. It always behaves like a wave function. There are no waves, and there are no particles, only wave functions.
I readily admit that I haven't explained what a wave function is yet. But at least you now know something new. There are no waves, there are no particles, and there is this third thing that you don't know about yet (a wave function). Isn't that compelling, exciting, and true?
Reality
Here's my abbreviated version which describes how things really behave...
We can fire a single electron at a phosphorous surface, which glows when it is hit - that's how old fashioned TV's work.
We can shine a laser through a pair of slits. The light travels through both slits, and interferes. In some places it cancels out, and in others it does not - forming a pattern of bright and dark bands on the screen beyond the slits.
So far, this is all classical physics. Nothing Quantum.
But we can reduce the intensity of the light, so that there's only one photon at a time, and the same pattern is formed over time. We can also fire single electrons though a pair of slits, and the same patten appears over time. Electrons behave the same as light.
So why did the electron travel is a straight line from the back of the TV to a dot on the TV screen? Why doesn't it travel through lots of weird paths, interfering with itself? It does! There are lots of crazy convoluted paths, and they do interfere. However, in this scenario, all of the non-straight paths cancel out (just like the dark areas of the double slit experiment). The only path which isn't cancelled out is the straight line path.
Before Quantum Mechanics, we would describe the electron in a TV as a particle, and the light/electrons in the double slit experiment as waves. We now describe both phenomena with a new idea, called the Wave Function.
Wave Functions describe particle-like behaviour that we see in TV sets as well as wave-like behaviour that we see in the double slit experiment. Electrons have a wave function, and photons have a wave function. The maths behind both is identical. We have simplified two seemingly different behaviours into one idea. It may seem confusing at first, because you are familiar with the concepts of a particle and waves from everyday experience. But if you want to understand how the universe works, put those ideas aside. Wave Functions describe everything. It explains why things travel in straight lines (such as the electrons in old TV's), as well as when things bend (light refracting though lenses). It explains how holograms work, how computers work, how chemistry works (including why elements are arranged in the periodic table).
It also explains macroscopic things like golf balls, but at this scale it isn't useful or practical. At such scales it is better to think at a higher level approximations, such as Newton's laws.
Richard Feynman
It's not quite true that all TV physics programs lie. I've seen clips of programs featuring Richard Feynman, and he didn't lie :-)
Summary
I think it is confusing, and unnecessary to lie. IMHO, lies are only propagated because there are so few teachers as eloquent, and knowledgable as Feynman. But given that we have The Feynman lectures (which are popular science, there are not aimed at physics graduates), I find it unacceptable that popular physics programs lie with such regularity.
Why not re-package the Feynman lectures - add fancy graphics if it is deemed necessary for today's audience, but keep the content largely unchanged (i.e. simple, and true).
Wouldn't it be great if the only lies in popular science programs, where lies of omission. After all, you can't expect to cover all of physics in 6 one hour episodes!