Light is a kind of electromagnetic wave, but what is a wave?

Question

Light is a kind of electromagnetic wave, but what is a wave?

Answer 1

it is an attractive question. i think of maybe component to the respond is that the flexibility isn't in all probability waves, yet instead provides a wave-like habit. i think that's what the different answerer grew to become into getting at whilst he stated different wave-like phenomena. In different words, what you're doing is analyzing wave-like habit as information of a wave-like actual sort. this would not right now follow. In technology, we use many conceptual fashions to place actuality right into a psychological image that we are in a position to narrate to. an basic mistake, extremely between discovering scientists, is the popularity of the conceptual kind as a real factor. it particularly is, even regardless of the undeniable fact that it particularly would not could desire to be. With EM radiation, it particularly is maximum in all probability no longer a realistically genuine depiction, because of the particle-wave duality. there are a number of countless techniques of imagining the character of EM radiation that are consistent with its habit. you may still desire to think of of it as being a flow of little debris, with the wave-like habit merely hence of the on-off nature of a flow of debris. of direction, it is likewise genuine that there particularly are not any actual debris, so maybe power pass via EM radiation is extra of a many times happening pulsation, a spasm of power (on-off repeated) In different words, do no longer take the fashions too actually. you're able to be able to desire to recollect them for what they're, conceptual fashions, no longer actuality.

Answer 2

Think of a simple wave : at the sea side when the tide is coming in. Next wave comes in further than the previous one but then a smaller one comes in but the tide is still generally coming in. Better still, think of dropping an object into a still pool of water. You can see the ripples starting from the point where the object hit the water expanding out to fill the pool. But then after a time the ripples get fewer and the pool starts to quieten down again and the ripples get less so drop another object in and the ripples start again. These ripples are waves. The more energy contained in the ripples, which can be varied by the size of the object, the height it fell from, its initial force (did you drop it or throw it), could determine how long they would continue to form and how far the ripples went. The same happens in other energy forms. I know you possibly wouldn't see energy moving in outer space as it is regarded as a vacuum, but you could feel it. Remember the ripple waves in the pool aren't really moving through the pool; it only demonstrates that the energy is there. That's the simplest way I can think of explaining it although I do appreciate there is more to it but way beyond Yahoo answers.

Answer 3

a Wave is energy. Lowest frequency wave is radio and highest being gamma, the higher the frequency the higher the energy. Electromagnetic waves move as radiation (nothing to do with nuclear physics )

radiation doesn't need to pass through particles to move so that's how the suns waves reach earth through the empty space. Light is a wave but don't think its part of the electromagnetic spectrum. the colour of the light depends on the frequency of the wave.

Answer 4

Think of gravity. Gravity is a field. Light, when it shows its wave nature, is 2 fields acting at right angle to each other.



Sinusoidally varying electric field and magnetic field.



http://images.search.yahoo.com/images/view?p=electromagnetic+wave&back=http%3A%2F%2Fsearch.yahoo.com%2Fsearch%3Fei%3DUTF-8%26p%3Delectromagnetic%2Bwave&w=2000&h=1500&imgurl=naturalbeautywell.files.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F11%2Felectromagnetic-wave.jpg&size=140KB&name=electromagnetic-wave.jpg&rcurl=http%3A%2F%2Fnaturalbeautywell.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F11%2F02%2Fhow-to-protect-yourself-from-emfs%2F&rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fnaturalbeautywell.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F11%2F02%2Fhow-to-protect-yourself-from-emfs%2F&type=&no=1&tt=109&oid=e7300654fc639016a6cf2e5ae37a7cd7&tit=electromagnetic+wave&sigr=12k3nhu54&sigi=1264umluu&sigb=11uilapcs#



The 2 field waves are moving in the X direction.



The electric field (red) varies in the X-Y plane



The magnetic field (blue) varies in the X-Z plane



Electromagnetic Energy is exchanged between the 2 fields

Answer 5

Hi! There is a lot going on here and since you dont want anything too complicated I think the best way to describe what a wave is (instead of what types there are) in simple terms for you is to consider what a wave does.



Yes it is physical effect e.g. have you been to the beach? What you realize is that a wave is a way to carry energy from one place to another without transporting actual matter.



That is probably the most simple and important definition to understand what a wave "is."



Hope that helps.

Answer 6

I’m sure some physics guru will give you a more technical answer but here’s a mechanical engineers understanding.



Is light a wave or a particle (photon)?



Answer: It depends on how you look at it.



Seriously, that’s what causes this paradox. If you observe light as a wave with experiments that observe the behavior of waves like diffraction then light is a wave. Its wave length can be shifted, like in the doper effect, and it can be separated with a prism (diffraction). Now if you look at light as a particle (photon) it will behave as such. A single photon can be detected and counted.



So, if that’s not confusing I don’t know what is.



The simple truth of the matter is we do not know exactly what physical stuff light is made up of. We can measure many of its properties and describe it physically but we cannot get away from the particle-wave duality.



I realize your question focused on what is a wave. A wave in the ocean is easy to see and understand. Now an energy wave traveling through time space - well that is much more of a stretch.



***Once again, the wave properties of light are analogies and relationships that describe the observable behavior of the light.****



It does not and will never tell us what stuff it is made of or even how it does it.



It is very difficult to accept something so intangible. I think if you just accept a light wave is an analogy to its behavior under one type of observation and that analogy doesn’t work under a different type of observation then it may be easier to accept how little we know about what it is.