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Why is light an electromagnetic wave?

seo-qna
Last updated date: 23rd Aug 2024
Total views: 346.5k
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Answer
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Hint: Let us first get some idea about the electromagnetic wave. Electromagnetic radiation (EMR) is a term used in physics to describe the waves (or quanta, photons) of the electromagnetic field that propagate over space and carry electromagnetic radiant energy. Radio waves, microwaves, infrared, (visible) light, ultraviolet, X-rays, and gamma rays are all examples of electromagnetic radiation. The electromagnetic spectrum includes all of these waves.

Complete step by step answer:
The situation altered radically in the \[1860s\] when Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell combined the domains of electricity, magnetism, and optics in a watershed theoretical work. Maxwell defined light as a propagating wave of electric and magnetic fields in his electromagnetism formulation.
Light, like other electromagnetic waves, can traverse a vacuum. Polarization can be used to highlight the transverse character of light. According to Huygens, an expanding sphere of light behaves as if each point on the wave front were a new source of radiation with the same frequency and phase as the preceding one.
Because electromagnetic waves have fluctuating electric and magnetic fields, they are called electromagnetic waves. The speed of light is the same for all EM energy waves. They always move at the same pace, regardless of their frequency or wavelength.

Note: Rays are the routes that light waves move in. Light waves do not have to go through matter to be seen, unlike sound waves, which must travel through matter to be heard. Instead, rays follow a straight course until they collide with something. The straight path of a ray is the path of light.