ELECTROMAGNETIC WAVES rays, visible light, radio waves, etc.

are
all the same phenomena
• By using these different tools,
Mechanical Waves astronomers are able to gain a lot of
information on various objects
• Mechanical waves are caused by a • One way to think about light is as a
disturbance or vibration in matter, traveling wave
whether solid, gas, liquid, or plasma.
• A wave is just a disturbance in some
• Matter that waves are traveling through medium (water, air, space)
is called a medium.
• A wave travels through a medium but
• Energy is transferred in mechanical does not transport material
waves.
• A wave can carry both energy and
information
Electromagnetic Waves
• In the 1860's and 1870's, a Scottish Wave Terminology
scientist named James Clerk Maxwell
developed a scientific theory to explain • Wavelength – distance between two
electromagnetic waves. like points on the wave
• He noticed that electrical fields and • Amplitude – the height of the wave
magnetic fields can couple together to compared to undisturbed state
form electromagnetic waves. He • Period – the amount of time required for
summarized this relationship between one wavelength to pass
electricity and magnetism into what are • Frequency – the number of waves
now referred to as "Maxwell's passing in a given amount of time
Equations."

Waves or Particles?
• Light is made of discrete packets of
energy called photons. Photons carry
momentum, have no mass, and travel at
the speed of light.
• All light has both particle-like and wave-
like properties. How an instrument is Wave Relationships
designed to sense the light influences
which of these properties are observed. •
• An instrument that diffracts light into a •
spectrum for analysis is an example of •
observing the wave-like property of
light. • Frequency is usually expressed in the
unit of Hertz
• The particle-like nature of light is o This unit is named after a
observed by detectors used in digital German scientist who studied
cameras—individual photons liberate radio waves
electrons that are used for the detection
and storage of the image data. o
o For example, if a wave has a
period of 10 seconds, the
frequency of the wave would be
Light and the Electromagnetic Spectrum 1/10 Hz, or 0.1 Hz
• The terms light, radiation, and • Note that light is always traveling at the
electromagnetic wave can all be used to same speed (c ~ 3 x 108 m/s)
explain the same concept o Remember: velocity =
• Light comes in many forms and it took wavelength x frequency
physicists some time to realize that x-
 ! If frequency increases, • Electromagnetic waves have different
wavelength decreases names but all travel at the same speed
! If frequency decreases, in
wavelength increases • Empty space, the speed of light
• Frequency increases as wavelength
decreases
Wavelengths of Light – Visible Light • Most waves are not visible
• What we see as white light is actually o Light waves are visible
made up of a continuum of components • All objects send out electromagnetic
• Traditionally, we break white light into waves
red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo,
and violet (ROY G BIV)
• There is actually a continuous transition
of color, each with its own wavelength
and frequency
• Red light has an approximate
wavelength of 7.0 x 10-7 m and a
frequency of 4.3 x 1014 Hz
• Violet light has an approximate
wavelength of 4.0 x 10-7 m and a
frequency of 7.5 x 1014 Hz
• When dealing with such small numbers
for wavelength, astronomers often use a
new unit called the angstrom
o 1 angstrom = 1 x 10-10 m
! Red light has a
wavelength of about 7000
angstroms
• When dealing with large numbers for EM Spectrum in Astronomy
frequency, we often use the traditional
prefixes • If we could only observe in visible light,
o Kilo = 103, Mega = 106, Giga = 109 our knowledge of the universe would be
greatly limited
! Red light has a frequency
of about 430,000 GHz • By looking at objects at different
wavelengths, we get a different view
and lots more information
The Electromagnetic Spectrum • Some objects are only visible at certain
wavelengths
• Human eyes are only able to process
information from the visible part of the
spectrum
• Toward longer wavelengths, the
spectrum includes infrared light,
microwaves, and radio
• Toward shorter wavelengths, the
spectrum includes ultraviolet light, X-
rays, and gamma rays
• All of these are forms of electromagnetic
radiation
• Wide range of electromagnetic waves
with different wavelengths and
frequencies
• Divided into different parts
 • Lowest Frequency
• Radio waves are used in radio & TV
technologies, as well as in radar.
• Radio
o Amplitude modulation (AM)
o Frequency modulation (FM)
• Radar
o Send out short bursts of radio
waves that bounce off objects &
return to receiver

Microwaves
• Shorter wavelength than radio waves
• Higher frequency than radio, but lower
Electromagnetic Waves than infrared
What are EM Waves? • Only penetrate food at the surface

• How are they produced?

o Electric and magnetic fields are Infrared Waves
constantly changing
o EM waves are produced when • Shorter wavelength than microwaves
electric charges vibrate or • Higher frequency than microwaves, but
accelerate lower than red light
• How do they travel? • Infrared rays are used as a source of
o Since electric and magnetic fields heat & to discover areas of heat
are constantly changing, they difference
regenerate each other • You can’t see infrared radiation, but
o EM waves can travel through a your skin feels its warmth
vacuum (empty space) as well as
through matter
Speed of EM Waves Visible Light

• Michelson (1852-1931) setup an • Each wavelength corresponds to a

experiment to try and find how fast light specific frequency
travels • Color determined by frequency
• Speed of light in a vacuum,

UV Rays
Electromagnetic Spectrum
• Shorter wavelength and higher
The Waves of the Spectrum frequency than violet light
• UV rays have applications in health and
• EM spectrum: all of the frequencies or medicine, and in agriculture.
wavelengths of electromagnetic
radiation • Helps skin produce Vit. D, cause
• sunburn, cancer, and used to kill
The EM spectrum includes radio waves, microorganisms
microwaves infrared rays, visible light,
UV rays, X-rays, and gamma rays. • How they are made: Ultra-Violet light is
made by special lamps, for example, on
sun beds. It is also given off by the Sun
in large quantities. We call it "UV" for
Radio Waves short.
• Longest wavelength
 • Uses for UV light include getting a sun through the patient and onto a piece of
tan, detecting forged bank notes in film, which goes dark where X-Rays hit
shops, and hardening some types of it. This leaves white patches on the film
dental filling. You also see UV lamps in where the bones were in the way. Lower
discos, where they make your clothes energy X-Rays don't pass through
glow. This happens because tissues as easily, and can be used to
substances in washing powder scan soft areas such as the brain
"fluoresce" when UV light strikes them. • USES: Sometimes a doctor will give a
When you mark your posessions with a patient a "Barium Meal", which is a
security marker pen, the ink is invisible drink of Barium Sulphate. This will
unless you shine a UV lamp at absorb X-rays, and so the patient's
• Dangers: Large doses of UV can intestines will show up clearly on a X-
damage the retinas in your eyes, so it's Ray image. Uses: X-rays are used by
important to check that your sunglasses doctors to see inside people. They pass
will block UV light. The cheaper easily through soft tissues, but not so
sunglasses tend not to protect you easily through bones. We send a beam
against UV, and this can be really of X-Rays through the patient and onto
dangerous. When you wear sunglasses a piece of film, which goes dark where
the pupils of your eye get bigger, X-Rays hit it. This leaves white patches
because less light reaches them. on the film where the bones were in the
way.
• This means that if your sunglasses don't
block UV, you'll actually get more ultra- • Lower energy X-Rays don't pass
violet light on your retinas than if you through tissues as easily, and can be
didn't wear them. Large doses of UV used to scan soft areas such as the
cause sunburn and even skin cancer. brain X-Rays are also used in airport
Fortunately, the ozone layer in the security checks, to see inside your
Earth's atmosphere screens us from luggage. They are also used by
most of the UV given off by the Sun. astronomers - many objects in the
Think of a sun tan as a radiation burn! universe emit X-rays, which we can
detect using suitable radio telescopes.
• Dangers: X-Rays can cause cell
X-Rays damage and cancers. This is why
Radiographers in hospitals stand behind
• Shorter wavelength and higher a shield when they X-ray their patients.
frequency than UV rays Although the dose is not enough to put
the patient at risk, they take many
• X-rays are used in medicine, industry, images each day and could quickly build
and transportation to make pictures of up a dangerous dose themselves.
the inside of solid objects.
• X-rays are absorbed by solid
objects (teeth, bones) & so solid objects Gamma Rays
appear white
• How they are made: X-rays are very • Shortest wavelength
high frequency waves, and carry a lot of • Highest frequency
energy. They will pass through most
substances, and this makes them useful • Gamma rays are used in the medical
in medicine and industry to see inside field to kill cancer cells and to make
things. pictures of the brain & in industrial
situations as an inspection tool.
• X-rays are given off by stars, and
strongly by some types of nebula. When • How they are made: Gamma rays are
we use X-rays, we make them by firing given off by stars, and by some
a beam of electrons at a "target". If we radioactive substances. They are
fire the electrons with enough energy, X- extremely high frequency waves, and
rays will be produced carry a large amount of energy. They
pass through most materials, and are
• Uses: X-rays are used by doctors to see quite difficult to stop - you need lead or
inside people. They pass easily through concrete in order to block them out.
soft tissues, but not so easily through
bones. We send a beam of X-Rays • Uses: Because Gamma rays can kill
living cells, they are used to kill cancer
 cells without having to resort to difficult • This energy is
surgery. This is called "Radiotherapy", emitted at
and works because cancer cells can't different
repair themselves like healthy cells can wavelengths (or
when damaged by gamma rays. Getting frequencies) of
the dose right is very important! light
• Doctors can put slightly radioactive • The distribution
substances into a patient's body, then of this energy is
scan them to detect the gamma rays called a blackbody curve
and build up a picture of what's going on
inside the patient. These are called • The size and shape of a blackbody
"tracers". This is very useful because curve changes with an object's
they can see the body processes temperature
actually working, rather than just looking
at still pictures.
• Dangers: Gamma rays cause cell
damage and can cause a variety of
cancers. They cause mutations in
growing tissues, so unborn babies are
especially vulnerable.

Measuring Temperature from Light

• Astronomers can use the light from an
object to measure its temperature
• Astronomers also use a different unit for
temperature, the Kelvin
• Water boils at 373 K and freezes at 273
K
o Most stars have a temperature in
the 1000's of Kelvin
• The coldest possible temperature
(absolute zero) corresponds to 0 Kelvin

Absorption of Light
1. Atoms can also absorb light shined
on them.
2. Any light not absorbed by the atoms
in an object is scattered (reflected)
back.
3. If only some colors are absorbed, the
rest are scattered back.
4. We see the colors scattered back.
5. White objects don’t absorb any light,
all colors reflected.
6. Black objects absorb most colors,
little light reflected.
7. Transparent objects let most light Doppler Effect
pass through without being absorbed
or scattered. • The motion of an object can be
measured through a change in the
frequency of the waves emitted by the
Blackbody Radiation object
• Every object radiates energy
 • The increase in pitch of an approaching • When a wave strikes an object and
police car is caused by the compression bounces off
of the sound wave
o The pitch decreases as the police
car moves away

Doppler Shift
• In astronomy, the same effect happens • Normal line – perpendicular to the
to light waves reflecting surface.
• A source that is moving away will • Incident ray/incoming ray – the ray
appear redder (redshift) that hits the barrier/surface.
• A source that is moving toward us will • Angle of incidence – angle formed by
appear bluer (blueshift) the incident ray with the normal.
• Note: Only objects moving toward or • Angle of reflection – angle formed by
away from us (radial motion) will show the reflected ray with the normal.
this effect
• Law of Reflection
o The angle of incidence equals the
angle of reflection
o The incident ray, reflected ray
and the normal lie on the same
plane
• Fiber Optics
o Total Internal Reflection
! When all light is reflected
back into the denser
medium

WAVE PROPERTIES OF LIGHT

Refraction
• Bending of waves when passing from
Reflection one medium to another
 • Caused by a change in speed • Electromagnetic waves such as light
o Slower (denser) – refracted ray exhibit polarization, as do some other
bends toward the normal types of wave, such as gravitational
waves.
• Sound waves in a gas or liquid do not
exhibit polarization, since the oscillation
is always in the direction the wave
travels.

o Faster (less dense) – refracted Light as an Electromagnetic Wave

ray bends away from the normal

• Rainbows
o Refraction-Reflection-Refraction
• Light is an electromagnetic wave.
• It consists of vibrations of electric field
Diffraction and magnetic field.
• Bending of waves around a barrier • The electric field and magnetic field are
perpendicular to each other and in
• Depends on the wavelength and size of phase. EM wave is a transverse wave.
the opening barrier. • The speed of EM wave is 3 x 108 ms-1.
• Diffraction Gratings
o Glass or plastic made up of many
tiny parallel slits
o May also be reflective
o Spectroscopes, reflective rainbow
stickers, CD surfaces

Interference
• When two waves meet, they have an
effect with each other.
• Constructive – when the crest of one
wave meet the crest of the other one;
brighter light Polarized Light
• Destructive – when the crest of one
wave meet the trough of the other wave; • Polarized Light: Vibrations lie on one
dimmer light single plane only.
• Thin Films - Bubbles & Oil Slicks • Unpolarized Light: Superposition of
o Interference results from double many beams, in the same direction of
reflection propagation, but each with random
polarization.
Polarization
• Polarization is a property of waves that
can oscillate with more than one
orientation.
 4. Polarization by Scattering
o When light strikes the
Methods of Polarizing Light atoms of a material, it will
often set the electrons of
• It is possible to transform unpolarized those atoms into vibration.
light into polarized light. Polarized light The vibrating electrons
waves are light waves in which the then produce their own
vibrations occur in a single plane. The electromagnetic wave that
process of transforming unpolarized is radiated outward in all
light into polarized light is known as directions. These vibrating
polarization. There are a variety of electrons produce another
methods of polarizing light. The four electromagnetic wave.
methods discussed on this page are: This scattered light is
1. Polarization by Transmission partially polarized.

Polarizing Material
• A polarizing material will only allow the
passage of that component of the
electric field parallel to the polarization
direction of the material
•

2. Polarization by Reflection

Polarization in Everyday Situations

3. Polarization by Refraction
 • In this photo, the reflected glare that • Polarization is often implemented in the
was seen on the water's surface production and viewing of 3D films.
(previous photo) has been removed by When watching a 3D movie, there are
the use of a Polaroid filter. It is much actually two images being projected
easier to see the sidewalk below the onto the screen at once. The two
water surface. images were filmed with two separate
cameras from two slightly offset
locations. These two images are
projected onto the screen through
Polaroid filters. The molecules of one of
the filters is aligned vertically, the other
is aligned horizontally. The audience is
given 3D glasses that have one lens
aligned horizontally and the other
• The reflected glare seen on the glass aligned vertically. Thus, one eye sees
panels of the lab cabinet has been one image and the other eye sees the
removed by the use of a Polaroid filter. It other image. The brain receives both
is much easier to see what is present signals and perceives depth on a flat
inside of the lab cabinets. This set of screen.
two photos provides another example of
how a Polaroid filter can block the
annoying glare that is caused when light
becomes polarized upon reflection. The sky is blue because..
• The tiny particles in the atmosphere
(dust, clumps of air molecules,
Action of Polaroid Sunglass microscopic water droplets) are better at
scattering shorter wavelength blue light
• Light reflected from surfaces like a flat than the longer wavelength red light.
road or smooth water is generally
horizontally polarized. This horizontally • As sunlight passes through the
polarized light is blocked by the atmosphere, the scattered blue light
vertically oriented polarizers in the gives the atmosphere an overall blue
lenses. glow.
• Unwanted glares are usually horizontally
polarized light
The sunset is red because..
• At sunrise and sunset, sunlight enters
Stress Analysis our atmosphere at a shallow angle and
travels a long distance before reaching
• Polarized light is often used in the stress our eyes.
analysis of molded plastics. Polarized
light passing through molded plastics • During this long passage, most of the
will reveal stress marks and stress blue light is scattered away and virtually
patterns that would not otherwise be all that we see coming to us from the
apparent to the naked eye. The plane of sun is its red and orange wavelengths.
polarization of polarized light is rotated
by these molded plastics at any location
where the plastic is stressed. The
amount of rotation depends upon the
wavelength of light. White light consists
of various wavelengths, each associated
with a distinct color. Using a Polaroid
filter and rotating it will reveal stress
patterns in various colors at various
angles of rotation.

Polarization in 3D Movies