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A diagram of the electromagnetic spectrum, showing various properties across the range of frequencies and wavelengths. The electromagnetic spectrum is the full range of electromagnetic radiation, organized by frequency or wavelength. The spectrum is divided into separate bands, with different names for the electromagnetic waves within each band.
Electromagnetic radiation is commonly referred to as "light", EM, EMR, or electromagnetic waves. [2] The position of an electromagnetic wave within the electromagnetic spectrum can be characterized by either its frequency of oscillation or its wavelength. Electromagnetic waves of different frequency are called by different names since they have ...
The stationary wave can be viewed as the sum of two traveling sinusoidal waves of oppositely directed velocities. [8] Consequently, wavelength, period, and wave velocity are related just as for a traveling wave. For example, the speed of light can be determined from observation of standing waves in a metal box containing an ideal vacuum.
Microwave is a form of electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths shorter than other radio waves but longer than infrared waves. Its wavelength ranges from about one meter to one millimeter, corresponding to frequencies between 300 MHz and 300 GHz, broadly construed.
X-rays are electromagnetic waves with a wavelength less than about 10 −9 m (greater than 3 × 10 17 Hz and 1240 eV). A smaller wavelength corresponds to a higher energy according to the equation E = h c/λ. (E is Energy; h is the Planck constant; c is the speed of light; λ is wavelength.) When an X-ray photon collides with an atom, the atom ...
When two signals with these waveforms, same period, and opposite phases are added together, the sum + is either identically zero, or is a sinusoidal signal with the same period and phase, whose amplitude is the difference of the original amplitudes.
The unification of light and electromagnetic waves was experimentally confirmed by Hertz in the end of the 1880s. Electromagnetic waves can have different frequencies (and thus wavelengths), and are classified accordingly in wavebands, such as radio waves, microwaves, infrared, visible light, ultraviolet, X-rays, and gamma rays. The range of ...
Dispersion occurs when sinusoidal waves of different wavelengths have different propagation velocities, so that a wave packet of mixed wavelengths tends to spread out in space. The speed of a plane wave, , is a function of the wave's wavelength : = ().