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Diffraction is the same physical effect as interference, but interference is typically applied to superposition of a few waves and the term diffraction is used when many waves are superposed. [1]: 433 Italian scientist Francesco Maria Grimaldi coined the word diffraction and was the first to record accurate observations of the phenomenon in 1660.
Radio propagation is the behavior of radio waves as they travel, or are propagated, from one point to another in vacuum, or into various parts of the atmosphere. [1]: 26‑1 As a form of electromagnetic radiation, like light waves, radio waves are affected by the phenomena of reflection, refraction, diffraction, absorption, polarization, and scattering. [2]
Optical atmospheric diffraction; Radio wave diffraction is the scattering of radio frequency or lower frequencies from the Earth's ionosphere, resulting in the ability to achieve greater distance radio broadcasting. Sound wave diffraction is the bending of sound waves, as the sound travels around edges of geometric objects. This produces the ...
The radio horizon is the locus of points at which direct rays from an antenna are tangential to the surface of the Earth. If the Earth were a perfect sphere without an atmosphere, the radio horizon would be a circle. The radio horizon of the transmitting and receiving antennas can be added together to increase the effective communication range.
Prior to World War II, prevailing radio physics theory predicted a relationship between frequency and diffraction that suggested radio signals would follow the curvature of the Earth, but that the strength of the effect would fall off rapidly and especially at higher frequencies. In spite of this widespread belief, during the war there were ...
The near field refers to places nearby the antenna conductors, or inside any polarizable media surrounding it, where the generation and emission of electromagnetic waves can be interfered with while the field lines remain electrically attached to the antenna, hence absorption of radiation in the near field by adjacent conducting objects detectably affects the loading on the signal generator ...
The radio waves carry the information across space to a receiver, where they are received by an antenna and the information extracted by demodulation in the receiver. Radio waves are also used for navigation in systems like Global Positioning System (GPS) and navigational beacons, and locating distant objects in radiolocation and radar.
Radio waves were first predicted by the theory of electromagnetism that was proposed in 1867 by Scottish mathematical physicist James Clerk Maxwell. [6] His mathematical theory, now called Maxwell's equations, predicted that a coupled electric and magnetic field could travel through space as an "electromagnetic wave".