on Wednesday 1 August 2012

Electromagnetic waves (EM Waves) are waves that are produced when an electric and magnetic field vibrate perpendicular to one another. Thus, it is implied that the direction of wave propagation is at a 90-degree angle to both fields.


From the figure above, the magnetic field (in blue) oscillates in the x-axis while the electric field (in red) oscillates in the y-axis, resulting in the wave propagation in the z-axis (towards the right side of the page).

The properties of EM waves:
1 - They transfer energy from a point to another.
2 - They consist of transverse waves.
3 - They can travel through vacuum.
4 - They travel at the speed of light (c = 3 X 108 m/s2)
5 - They exhibit ALL properties exhibited by waves:
       i. reflection
      ii. refraction
     iii. diffraction
     iv. interference