Iona Prep Physics Resources

 

James Clerk Maxwell showed that when electric charges vibrate, they generate transverse waves which travel through a vacuum at the speed of light. These waves consist of vibrating electric and magnetic fields which act at right angles to each other and to the direction of propagation of the waves. These electromagnetic waves vary widely in wavelengths as shown in the chart below.

Shorter Wavelength ------------------------------------------------Longer Wavelength

Visible Light

As you can see from the chart above, the section which we can see is a very small portion of the electromagnetic spectrum.

The visible spectrum runs from violet at the short end with wavelengths around 4 x10^-7 meters to red at the long end with wavelength around 7x10^-7 meters.

Shorter Wavelength -------------------------------------Longer Wavelength

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