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Light Is An Electromagnetic Wave

Light is an electromagnetic wave that does not require a medium to propagate because the changing electric and magnetic fields generate each other. Different wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum, including radio waves, microwaves, infrared, visible light, ultraviolet, x-rays, and gamma rays, interact differently with matter depending on their wavelength despite all traveling at the speed of light. For example, radio waves can pass through walls while visible light cannot.

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Leo Cereno
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104 views

Light Is An Electromagnetic Wave

Light is an electromagnetic wave that does not require a medium to propagate because the changing electric and magnetic fields generate each other. Different wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum, including radio waves, microwaves, infrared, visible light, ultraviolet, x-rays, and gamma rays, interact differently with matter depending on their wavelength despite all traveling at the speed of light. For example, radio waves can pass through walls while visible light cannot.

Uploaded by

Leo Cereno
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Light is an Electromagnetic

Wave
You can make your own wave. Take a long extension cord and
stretch it out on the ground. Now give one end a vertical shake. You
should get something like this (this gif is in slow motion):

Now take away the extension cord and repeat the demonstration.
Yes, nothing happens. If you don't have a medium for a wave to
travel in, there is no wave. But what about light? Light's a wave,
right? Yes indeed (as I described above). So, then how does light
travel through empty space as it goes from the Sun to the Earth?
What is the medium for a light wave?

It turns out there are two important things about electric and
magnetic fields. First, here is a wire carrying electric current over a
magnetic compass. The electric current makes a magnetic field
which causes the compass needle to turn.
But you don't even need an electric current to make magnetic fields.
It turns out that a changing electric field will also make a magnetic
field. Here is a coil of wire connected to a lightbulb (no battery).
When it is placed over this changing magnetic field, the changing
electric field is created that drives a current.

So we have a changing electric field that creates a magnetic field


and a changing magnetic field creates an electric field. Put these
two ideas together and you can make two waves (and electric field
wave and a magnetic field wave) that both make the other
propagate. Electromagnetic waves don't need a medium because in
a sense, they are their own medium.
Different Wavelengths of
Light Interact Differently With
Matter
First, there is the electromagnetic spectrum. You can make an
electromagnetic wave of all different wavelengths - from larger than
1 meter (radio waves) to less than 10 picometers (gamma rays - but
they are still waves). Here is the common classification of the
electromagnetic spectrum going from large wavelengths to small.

 Radio
 Microwaves
 Infrared
 Visible light
 Ultraviolet
 X-rays (but they are waves)
 Gamma rays

All of these are electromagnetic waves and they all travel at the
same speed (the speed of light). However, they have different
interactions with matter. If you are inside, your mobile phone can
still get data from a cell tower since these radio waves pass through
most walls. Can you see through the walls? No. Visible light does
not pass through most walls. X-rays mostly go through your skin,
but you can't see (with visible light) through skin - that would just be
weird.

Technically the interaction with light and matter depends on the


frequency of light - but since frequency and wavelength are related,
we can just talk about the wavelength.

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