LESSON # 2.

1
ELECTROMAGNETIC WAVES
Electromagnetic waves (EM waves) is produced by accelerating charges; moving charges back and
forth will produce oscillating electric and magnetic fields, and this travel at the speed of light.

Accelerating electrons produce electromagnetic waves. These waves are a combination of electric and
magnetic fields. A changing magnetic field produces an electric field, and a changing electric field produces a
magnetic field. Both the electric field and the magnetic field oscillate perpendicular to each other and to the
direction of the propagating wave.

HISTORY OF ELECTROMAGNETIC WAVES

a. James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879), a Scottish scientist who developed a scientific theory to explain
electromagnetic waves. He noticed that electrical fields and magnetic fields can couple together to
form electromagnetic waves. He summarized this relationship between electricity and magnetism by
developing equations, "Maxwell's Equations".

b. Heinrich Hertz (1857-1894), a German physicist who showed that Maxwell's theory of
electromagnetism was correct, and that light and heat are electromagnetic radiations. He applied
these theories to the production and reception of radio waves. The unit of frequency of a radio
wave “one cycle per second” is named the hertz, in honor of Heinrich Hertz.

c. Michael Faraday (1791-1867), an English scientist, who discovered electromagnetic induction, has
contributions on electrical engineering and electrochemistry. He was responsible for introducing the
concept of field in physics to describe electromagnetic interaction.

d. André-Marie Ampère (1775-1836), a French physicist who founded and named the science of
electrodynamics, now known as electromagnetism. He immediately set to work developing a
mathematical and physical theory to understand the relationship between electricity and magnetism. He
showed that two parallel wires carrying electric currents repel or attract each other, depending
on whether the currents flow in the same or opposite directions, respectively.

e. Hans Christian Oersted (1777 -1851), a Danish physicist and chemist who discovered that electric
currents create magnetic fields, which was the first connection found between electricity and
magnetism.

WAVEFORM
– is a graphical representation of a sound wave as it moves through a medium over time.
 1. EQUILIBRIUM POSITION - The dashed line drawn through the center of the diagram represents the
equilibrium or rest position of the string.
2. CREST - The crest of a wave is the point on the medium t h a t exhibits t h e maximum amount of
positive or upward displacement from the rest position.
3. TROUGH - The trough of a wave is the point on medium that exhibits the maximum amount of negative
or downward displacement from the rest position.
4. AMPLITUDE - The amplitude of a wave refers to the maximum amount of displacement of a particle on
the medium from its rest position. In a sense, the amplitude is the distance from rest to crest. Similarly,
the amplitude can be measured from the rest position to the trough position.
5. WAVELENGTH - The wavelength of a wave is simply the length of one complete wave cycle. The
wavelength can be measured as t h e distance from crest to crest or from trough to trough.

WAVE CYCLE – A wave is a repeating pattern. It repeats itself in a periodic and regular fashion over both time and
space. And the length of one such spatial repetition (known as a wave cycle) is the wavelength.

PERIOD – The period of a wave is the time for a particle on a medium to make one complete vibrational cycle.

FREQUENCY – The number of crests that pass a given point within one second is described as the frequency of
the wave. One wave-or cycle-per second is called a Hertz (Hz), after Heinrich Hertz who established the existence
of radio waves. A wave with two cycles that pass a point in one second has a frequency of 2 Hz.

SOLVE!
1. A wave is introduced into a thin wire held tight at each end. It has an amplitude of 3.8 cm, a frequency of 51.2 Hz
and a distance from a crest to the neighboring trough of 12.8 cm. Determine the period of such a wave.

2. Olive Udadi accompanies her father to the park for an afternoon of fun. While there, she hops on the swing and
begins a motion characterized by a complete back- and-forth cycle every 2 seconds. The frequency of swing is _.

WAVE EQUATION – All electromagnetic waves can travel through a medium but unlike other types of waves, they
can also travel in vacuum. They travel in vacuum at a speed of 3x108 m/s and denoted as “c”, the speed of
light. The wave speed, frequency, and wavelength are related by the following equation: v = λf, where v is the
wave speed, or c (speed of light) expressed in meters per second, the frequency “f” is expressed in Hertz
and the wavelength “λ” is expressed in meters.

SOLVE!
1. A wave has frequency of 50 Hz and a wavelength of 10 m. What is the speed of the wave?
2. A wave has frequency of 5 Hz and a speed of 25 m/s. What is the wavelength of the wave?
3. A wave has wavelength of 10 m and a speed of 340 m/s. What is the frequency of the wave?
4. What is the frequency of radio waves with wavelength of 20 m?
5. What is the frequency of light waves with wavelength of 5 x 10- 7 m?

WAVE ENERGY – An electromagnetic wave can also be described in terms of its energy-in units of measure called
electron volts (eV). An electron volt is the amount of kinetic energy needed to move an electron through one volt
potential.

The different types of electromagnetic waves are defined by the amount of energy carried by/possessed by the
photons. Photons are bundles of wave energy. The energy of a photon is given by the equation: E=hf where “h”
is the Planck's Constant, and “f” is the frequency of the EM wave. The value of the Planck's constant is 6.63 x
10-34 joules per second.
SOLVE!
1. A photon has a frequency (f) of 2.68 x 106 Hz. Calculate its energy.
2. Calculate the energy (E) of a photon of light with a frequency (f) of 6.165 x 10 14 Hz.
3.
Since all the EM waves have the same speed and that is equal to the speed of light, as wavelength
decreases, the frequency of the wave increases. Through the years, the advancement on the knowledge about
electromagnetic waves led us to a modern technological world.