SALESIAN POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY

SYSTEMS ENGINEER

NETWORKS I

Name: Kevin Fuertes

Date: 12/11/2018

Topic: Electromagnetic Radiation

The present essay will be about electromagnetic radiation, the importance that it has and where it comes
from, in fact, in the world that surrounds us we can observe waves of light or visible radiation, but there
is some radiation that is not visible to the human eye like gamma rays, x-rays, ultraviolet, infrared,
microwaves and radio waves, this whole set of radiation forms the electromagnetic spectrum.
Electromagnetic radiation is formed by the combination of electric and magnetic fields, which propagate
through space in the form of energy-carrying waves.

The distance that exists between the individual waves is called wavelength, as an example we have the
distance from one peak to the other. The wavelengths of visible light oscillate between 400 and 700
billionths of a meter, however the frequencies of them oscillate between 430 billion waves per second
and 750 billion waves per second, where the lowest point is colored red and the highest point is violet. In
gamma rays, we can observe what happens with radio waves and frequency, since at a longer wavelength,
less frequency and energy exist, that is, the amount of energy is proportional to its frequency. All the
electromagnetic radiation travels at the speed of light, each type of radiation gives us a unique
information, then to obtain a complete image, one must study it with all the necessary light and at the
same time give a good use of the electromagnetic spectrum and that almost everything I know of the
universe is thanks to electromagnetic radiation.

But what is the electromagnetic spectrum? This is a continuum of all electromagnetic waves arranged
according to frequency and wavelength. The human eye can detect a part of the electromagnetic
spectrum, the detected part is the visible spectrum. Then there are different electromagnetic waves in
the universe as we have radio waves, which have the longest wavelengths and the lowest frequency, are
used to transmit information from an antenna located in a station to a radio or television antenna. The
microwaves have a difference with the previous one, since their frequency is the highest of the radio
waves, they are generally in daily life to give heat and heat our food, this is due to the fact that these
microwave waves are absorbed for food and convert energy into heat. The infrared is another of the
electromagnetic waves which we find in the heat of sunlight, in some fire; these waves cannot be felt. The
visible waves are the only electromagnetic waves that the human being can see, unlike ultraviolet light
that is invisible to the human eye, although certain insects can see them. X-rays are very important in this
classification because they are used in medicine, as X-rays to observe inside the body. There are waves
that are generated by radioactive atoms and nuclear explosions such as gamma rays, and are used to kill
cancer cells.

In short, electromagnetic radiation is something vital, since it has helped humanity to know much of the
universe, thanks to the studies made of it. Electromagnetic waves do not provide great help in everyday
life as an example we have microwaves that help us to heat food in a simple way, absorbing energy from
food and transforming it into heat. X-rays, in the world of medicine are something great, since they are
especially useful in the detection of diseases of the skeleton, and not only these electromagnetic waves
are used in medicine, but also gamma rays, where they are useful at the time of killing cancer cells in the
human body.