What are the basic properties of electromagnetic radiation? Light is a part of o

Question

What are the basic properties of electromagnetic radiation? Light is a part of our everyday life. Having a basic understanding of its properties is important for us to understand what we see. To begin with this we will start with identifying what you already know. Please do not use the internet. Just answer these of the top of your head. What causes light to have different colors? Use physics to explain your answer. Can light be used to cancel out light? Use physics to explain your answer. (ex. Can light be used like sound is in a pair of noise canceling headphones.) If you shine different colored light on a table what happens to the color of the table? Use physics to explain your answer. If you can see inside a room that means that light exists in the room. Does all the light come only from the light bulbs. Use physics to explain your answer. What causes shadows? Use physics to explain your answer.

Explanation / Answer

1. Lights form a part of electro-magnetic wave. The light travels with the speed of light in vacuum and changes its speed when it travels from one medium to another. However, frequency and wave-length doesn't change. The color of these electromagnetic waves comes from the wave-length of the light. The shortest wave-length has the violet color and the largest wave-length is in red color.

2. By the process of interference, the light can cancel light. In interference is a phenomenon in which two waves superpose to form a resultant wave of greater, lower, or the same amplitude. At the point of destructive interference, there will be no light.

3. Colored objects reflect back only some of the wavelengths; the rest they absorb. If white light shines on a red ball, the ball reflects back mostly red light, and so we see red. Most of the greens and blues that are part of white light are absorbed by the ball so we cannot see them. This phenomenon will happen with the colored table too. The part of the table with red color will reflect red color of the light and other colors will be absorbed. In this way, we can observe different colors of the table.

4. The primary source of the light is from the light bulb. This light falls on the different parts of the room and gets scattered. This scattered light from different part of the room and reaching our eyes helps us to see things, even the light is not coming directly from the bulb. These scattered light forms the secondary source of light. We can observe this even when we open the doors and windows of the room and the light from outside enter the room.

5. The shadows are formed when the light is obstructed by an object. The shadows are formed from the absence of light. It occupies all of the three-dimensional volume behind an object with light in front of it. The outlines of the shadow zones can be found by tracing the rays of light emitted by the outermost regions of the extended light source.

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