Characteristics of Light Arianna Lammers Over these last 2 weeks, my partner and I have been learning about the

many characteristics of light. When I got this project I thought I knew everything about this topic. There is more than just the Electromagnetic Spectrum. There is also the calculation of frequency and wavelength of the Electromagnetic Radiation, we also needed to recognize that light has finite, and that the brightness of a light source is affected by the distance. So overall there is more than meets the eye when you think of the electromagnetic spectrum . The Electromagnetic Spectrum has 7 components that make the entire spectrum up. There is the radio wave, microwave, infrared, light, ultraviolet, x-ray, and gamma rays. The radio wave is a type of transmitter and it has a long wavelength and a low frequency. Next, the microwave are extremely high frequency radio waves. These waves are used in cooking, mobile phones, speeding cameras, and radars. Although this wave is used in everyday cooking, if you have a microwave, is dangerous because when kids press their faces to the door they can get cataracts in their eyes which can cause a blur in the vision so you shouldnt let this be a habit. As you move along the Electromagnetic Spectrum, infrared is next, Infa means below because it is below visible red light. Although this wave has many different but somewhat interesting uses, the only thing you should be concerned with is overheating. Light is in the middle of the spectrum and it is only a tiny part of the spectrum. Light have many uses, but the main uses are lasers (Laser printers and compact disc) and aircraft weapon aiming systems. Ultraviolet light, called UV for short, is given off by the sun in large quantities. When you are buying your sunglasses make sure that they have UV protection because wearing sunglasses without the UV protection is worse than not wearing the sunglassses. The next to last

wave is the X-ray. The X-ray are given off by stars, and they are meant to see inside people. When you are laying down getting ready to get an X-ray, have you ever thought about how this wave works? Well the X-ray machine fires a beam of electrons at a target and if they X-ray machine can build up enough energy, it will allow a X-ray to be produced. Finally, the gamma ray, the last wave in the electromagnetic spectrum, has the short wavelength and the highest frequency. The gamma ray is actually quite dangerous. It can cause cell damage when you are having radioactivity done to your rapidly dividing cells. This can cause an unborn child to have mutations. When you are calculating the frequency or wavelength of an electromagnetic radiation, you are going to use the formula, = c, and plug in what is given to get the unknown value. Light has finite speed. Which means that the speed of light is 300,000,000 meters per second, and it is part of the electromagnetic spectrum. A wave as to take its time to get from one point to another, and if it didnt have a finite speed then it would have to everywhere at once. Plus, brightness of a light source is affected by distance because when the distances of the light doubles the brightness of the source is decreased by a factor of four. So overall, there is more than meets the eyes when you think about what all deals with the electromagnetic spectrum. There the 7 components: radio waves, microwaves, infrared, light, ultraviolet, X-ray, and gamma ray. Some of the waves have dangers that you need to be worried about, but the many uses they have in our everyday lives, you would have never thought about. You need to understand that light a finite speed which is the speed of light, 300,000,000 meters per seconds. Also when the distances doubles the brightness of light will decrease by a factor of four.

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