having trouble visualizing radio waves?

Question

I have some natural questions that were never answered in both my HS and college physics courses.


How come in a room or even outside if you are listening to a distant station it can come in clear but moving 2 meters or even a few feet in some directions you can't hear it at all?

I am having trouble picturing radio waves,most diagrams show it as linear sin waves or like waves on a pond but not 3 D since they must travel in all directions.

What would radio waves look like if we could see them? and

how can it travel through walls without interference?

Also if radio waves have large wavelengths (as big as buildings) why are we able to receive AM radio and even FM radio on smaller antennas?

Also if radio waves are electromagnetic waves, then how come we can't see radio waves but we can see light waves but we can't see higher energy waves?

What is static or white noise?

Answer 1

If by your first ? you mean it gets all staticy, then its just the water molecules in your body refracting the radiowaves which are then picked up by the antenna



Radiowaves would look just like light if we could see it.



for the wavelengths and antennas....you have to remember that radiowaves move at the speed of light, so just because they have extremely large wave lengths, doesnt mean that the antenna isnt being pounded with millions of waves.



We can not see radio waves because cones and rods...the cells in our eyes that detect light...can't pick up the radio waves or anything thats not visual light because their waves are either too small or too large and their frequency is too high or too low. Its kinda like sound, after about 20,000hz (20Mhz) you cant hear it anymore because the frequency, or number of waves, are too high for our ears to pick up.



Static is just the antenna picking up too many signals at the same time. If you are on a frequency that is not being used, you pick up the frequencies above and below it. Also, the speakers make that sound when there is no signal going to them but they still have electricity in them.

Answer 2

Local interference can block the radio wave to a point where the antennae can't pick it up enough for amplification. Imagine waves travelling along a very long sheet waving in the wind. They can't travel through all walls. The signal strength is not critical to the length of the antenna, it is the amplifying circuit that is important. Radio waves are not in the visible spectrum.

Static noise is caused by electrical arcing.

Answer 3

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