Questions tagged [electromagnetic-radiation]
Propagating solutions to Maxwell’s equations in classical electromagnetism and real photons in quantum electrodynamics. A superset of thermal-radiation.
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What is Chirped Pulse Amplification, and why is it important enough to warrant a Nobel Prize?
The 2018 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded recently, with half going to Arthur Ashkin for his work on optical tweezers and half going to Gérard Mourou and Donna Strickland for developing a technique ...
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If photons have no mass, how can they have momentum?
As an explanation of why a large gravitational field (such as a black hole) can bend light, I have heard that light has momentum. This is given as a solution to the problem of only massive objects ...
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Why does NASA use gold foil on equipment and gold-coated visors?
I've read several websites about equipment covered with gold foil and astronaut helmet visors are coated with gold. However, their explanations are devoid of almost all physics content. Can someone ...
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What is an "attosecond pulse", and what can you use it for?
The 2023 Nobel Prize in Physics was announced today, and it was awarded to Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz and Anne L’Huillier, for
“experimental methods that generate attosecond pulses of light for ...
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Why does a remote car key work when held to your head/body?
I was trying to unlock my car with a keyfob, but I was out of range. A friend of mine said that I have to hold the transmitter next to my head. It worked, so I tried the following later that day:
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If you view the Earth from far enough away can you observe its past?
From my understanding of light, you are always looking into the past based on how much time it takes the light to reach you from what you are observing.
For example when you see a star burn out, if ...
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How many photons are received per bit transmitted from Voyager 1?
As of 2024, according to https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/ , Voyager 1 is around one light·day away from Earth and still in radio contact. When Voyager 1 sends messages to Earth, roughly how many photons ...
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What is the relation between electromagnetic wave and photon?
At the end of this nice video (https://youtu.be/XiHVe8U5PhU?t=10m27s), she says that electromagnetic wave is a chain reaction of electric and magnetic fields creating each other so the chain of wave ...
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Why is glass transparent?
Once I asked this question from my teacher and he replied "Because it passes light.". "And why does it pass light?" I asked and he said, "Because it is transparent.".
The same question again, Why ...
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How and why do accelerating charges radiate electromagnetic radiation?
Let's consider it case by case:
Case 1: Charged particle is at rest. It has an electric field around it. No problem. That is its property.
Case 2: Charged particle started moving (it's accelerating)....
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Can photons be detected without being absorbed?
I am thinking about a detector that would beep if light passes through it. Is it possible?
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Why is light called an 'electromagnetic wave' if it's neither electric nor magnetic?
How can light be called electromagnetic if it doesn't appear to be electric nor magnetic?
If I go out to the sunlight, magnets aren't affected (or don't seem to be). And there is no transfer of ...
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Does a charged particle accelerating in a gravitational field radiate?
A charged particle undergoing an acceleration radiates photons.
Let's consider a charge in a freely falling frame of reference.
In such a frame, the local gravitational field is necessarily zero, ...
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Why doesn't the motion of a car affect the frequency of radio stations?
When we go in a car and tune to an FM radio station, why doesn't our motion disturb the frequency?
Like the Doppler effect?
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If visible light has more energy than microwaves, why isn't visible light dangerous?
Light waves are a type of electromagnetic wave and they fall between 400-700 nm long. Microwaves are less energetic but seem to be more dangerous than visible light. Is visible light dangerous at all ...
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How strong are Wi-Fi signals?
My family members dislike the idea of having many devices communicating wirelessly in our house, arguing that the signals have negative effects on our physical health.
I would like to tell them the ...
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Why isn't my calculation that we should be able to see the sun well beyond the observable universe valid?
I recently read an interesting article that states that a human being can perceive a flash of as few as 5 or so photons, and the human eye itself can perceive even a single photon. The brain will ...
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What are the various physical mechanisms for energy transfer to the photon during blackbody emission?
By conservation of energy, the solid is left in a lower energy state following emission of a photon. Clearly absorption and emission balance at thermal equilibrium, however, thermodynamic equilibrium ...
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What's the physics behind XKCD #2027 (time between lightning flash and radio wave burst)?
XKCD usually has solid (and often contemporary) science behind it. Lightning Difference, #2027 one says:
Q: What’s that trick for telling how many miles away lightning is?
A: Just count the seconds ...
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Does a constantly accelerating charged particle emit EM radiation or not?
The Abraham-Lorentz force gives the recoil force, $\mathbf{F_{rad}}$, back on a charged particle $q$ when it emits electromagnetic radiation. It is given by:
$$\mathbf{F_{rad}} = \frac{q^2}{6\pi \...
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Why do prisms work (why is refraction frequency dependent)?
It is well known that a prism can "split light" by separating different frequencies of light:
Many sources state that the reason this happens is that the index of refraction is different for ...
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Do two beams of light attract each other in general theory of relativity?
In general relativity, light is subject to gravitational pull. Does light generate gravitational pull, and do two beams of light attract each other?
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Phase shift of 180 degrees of transversal wave on reflection from denser medium
Can anyone please provide an intuitive explanation of why phase shift of 180 degrees occurs in the Electric Field of a EM wave, when reflected from an optically denser medium?
I tried searching for ...
WhizKid
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Why and how is the speed of light in vacuum constant, i.e., independent of reference frame?
I was told that the Galilean relative velocity rule does not apply to the speed of light. No matter how fast two objects are moving, the speed of light will remain same for both of them.
How and why ...
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Cyclist's electrical tingling under power lines
It's been happening to me for years. I finally decided to ask users who are better with "practical physics" when I was told that my experience – that I am going to describe momentarily – prove that I ...
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Why doesn't light affect a compass?
In our daily life a lot of photons of visible light, infrared and radio etc move around us. We know that light is an electromagnetic radiation. So why doesn't that electromagnetic radiation affect a ...
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Do rainbows have ultraviolet bands and infrared bands?
We have seen that rainbows looks so colorful as we are only able to see only the visible light. But Do they also have ultraviolet bands and infra-red bands, that we are unable to see?
I know someone ...
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Scattering of light by light: experimental status
Scattering of light by light does not occur in the solutions of Maxwell's equations (since they are linear and EM waves obey superposition), but it is a prediction of QED (the most significant Feynman ...
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Can I use an antenna as a light source?
Can I use a normal metal antenna to emit visible light?
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Are there any theoretical limits on the energy of a photon?
Is there any lower or upper limit on the energy of a photon? i.e. does the mathematical framework we currently use to study photons blow up when a photon surpasses a certain upper limit of energy? (or ...
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Red shifted to what?
I searched and found a lot of questions and answers about red shift here but none with the answer to mine. (sorry if it is there somewhere and I did not find it.)
Everyone is saying the light from ...
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Why don't we use infrared light to heat food?
Why don't we use infrared (IR) or even the far IR just to heat food in a microwave oven instead of, of course, the conventional 2.45 GHz microwaves? Don't people call IR heat waves?
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How is it possible there are UV photos while our eyes cannot detect UV waves?
I know this question sounds dumb, but please bear with me. This question came into my mind while I was looking at the photos in an astronomy book. How is it possible that IR and UV photos of stars and ...
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Explaining UV radiation to a 6 year old
My (just completed) PhD involved a considerable amount of research involved with the detection of solar UV radiation. This generated quite a bit of interest, especially when I was conducting my ...
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Amplitude of an electromagnetic wave containing a single photon
Given a light pulse in vacuum containing a single photon with an energy $E=h\nu$, what is the peak value of the electric / magnetic field?
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Does pure yellow exist in variations we can't discern? [duplicate]
If you add red light (~440 THz) and green light (~560 THz), you get what we perceive as yellow light (~520 THz). But I assume what you really get is a mixed waveform that we perceive as yellow? ...
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How does light re-accelerate after slowing down? [duplicate]
Light travels at speed x through a vacuum, and then it encounters a physical medium and slows down, only to leave the physical medium and re-enter vacuum. The speed of light immediately re-accelerates ...
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Can a photon get emitted without a receiver?
It is generally agreed upon that electromagnetic waves from an emitter do not have to connect to a receiver, but how can we be sure this is a fact? The problem is that we can never observe non-...
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How do Optically Active Compounds Rotate Plane Polarized Light?
I am not sure if this is more of a Chemistry or a Physics question, but in my Organic Chem class we discussed that chiral molecules will rotate plane polarized light. However, my professor did not ...
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Why is Huygens' principle only valid in an odd number of spatial dimensions?
Apparently Huygens' principle is only valid in an odd number of spatial dimensions:
https://mathoverflow.net/a/5396/21349
Huygen's principle in curved spacetimes
Why is this?
[EDIT] This is ...
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How can any light get past a polarizer?
The sun sends out unpolarized light. There are infinite degrees in which these photons are oriented. A polarizer only lets in light of one specific orientation.
In statistics, the infinitesimal area/...
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What is the highest possible frequency for an EM wave?
What is the highest possible frequency, shortest wavelength, for an electromagnetic wave in free space, and what limits it? Is the answer different for EM waves in other materials or circumstances? ...
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Do nuclei emit photons?
Generally in text books they say that when a electron goes from high energy state to a lower energy state it emits photons.
My question is, it is possible that a proton that goes from high energy ...
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Why does a mirror reflect visible light but not gamma rays?
Visible light (~500 THz) as well as gamma rays (~100 EHz) are electromagnetic radiation but we can reflect visible light using a glass mirror but not gamma rays. Why is that?
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How far out from the Sun is visible light still sufficient to read a book?
Recent pictures from the New Horizons spacecraft, shown below, seem to indicate that, at Pluto's distance, we are entering a twilight zone, with a distinct lack of colors, although that could be due ...
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Is it really possible to break the speed of light by flicking your wrist with a laser pointer?
Minutephysics has a popular YouTube video called "How to break the speed of light". In the video it states that if you flick your wrist while pointing a laser that reaches the moon, that the spot of ...
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Can you bend light to go in a circle?
Is it possible to bend light so that it forms a circle and goes round and round indefinitely without losing energy?
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If both radio waves and gamma rays can travel through walls
and they are on opposite ends of the electromagnetic spectrum, then why can't light travel through walls which is right in the middle of the spectrum?
This question has already been asked here. ...
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Can light exist in $2+1$ or $1+1$ spacetime dimensions?
Spacetime of special relativity is frequently illustrated with its spatial part reduced to one or two spatial dimension (with light sector or cone, respectively). Taken literally, is it possible for $...
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Why does wavelength change as light enters a different medium?
When light waves enter a medium of higher refractive index than the previous, why is it that:
Its wavelength decreases?
The frequency of it has to stay the same?
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