What is Electromagnetic energy?
Discovery
Electromagnetic energy travels in waves and spans a
broad spectrum from very long radio waves to very
short gamma rays.
Our Protective Atmosphere
 Our Sun is a source of energy across the full
spectrum, and its electromagnetic radiation
bombards our atmosphere constantly.
 However, the Earth's atmosphere protects us
from exposure to a range of higher energy
waves that can be harmful to life.
Different Regions of Electromagnetic Spectrum
1. Radio Waves
2. Microwave
3. Infrared Spectrum
4. Visible Spectrum
5. Ultraviolet Spectrum
6. X-ray
7. Gamma Ray
RADIO WAVES
 Radio waves have the longest wavelengths in
the electromagnetic spectrum. They range from
the length of a football to larger than our
planet.
 Radio waves are used for wireless transmission
of sound messages, or information,
for communication, as well as for maritime and
aircraft navigation. The information is imposed
on the electromagnetic carrier
wave as amplitude modulation (AM) or
as frequency modulation (FM)
 The antennae on your television set receive the
signal, in the form of electromagnetic waves,
that is broadcasted from the television station.
It is displayed on your television screen.
 Transmission therefore involves not a single-
frequency electromagnetic wave but rather
a frequency band whose width is proportional
to the information density. The width is about
10,000 Hz for telephone, 20,000 Hz for high-
fidelity sound, and five megahertz (MHz = one
million hertz) for high-definition television. This
width and the decrease in efficiency of
generating electromagnetic waves with
decreasing frequency sets a lower frequency
limit for radio waves near 10,000 Hz.
 Cable companies have antennae or dishes
which receive waves broadcasted from your
local TV stations. The signal is then sent through
a cable to your house.
 Cellular phones also use radio waves to
transmit information. These waves are much
smaller that TV and FM radio waves.
 Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell, who
developed a unified theory of electromagnetism
in the 1870s, predicted the existence of radio
waves.
 In 1886, Heinrich Hertz, a German physicist,
applied Maxwell's theories to the production
and reception of radio waves. Hertz used simple
homemade tools, including an induction coil
and a Leyden jar (an early type of capacitor
consisting of a glass jar with foil layers both
inside and out) to create electromagnetic
waves.
 He used a spark gap attached to an induction
coil and a separate spark gap on a receiving
antenna.
 When waves created by the sparks of the coil
transmitter were picked up by the receiving
antenna, sparks would jump its gap as well.
Hertz showed in his experiments that these
signals possessed all the properties of
electromagnetic waves.
 Hertz became the first person to transmit and
receive controlled radio waves. The unit of
frequency of an EM wave — one cycle per
second — is called a hertz, in his honor.
 Heinrich Hertz proved the existence of radio
waves in the late 1880s.
RADIO TELESCOPES
 Radio telescopes look toward the heavens to
view planets, comets, giant clouds of gas and
dust, stars, and galaxies.
 By studying the radio waves originating from
these sources, astronomers can learn about
their composition, structure, and motion. Radio
astronomy has the advantage that sunlight,
clouds, and rain do not affect observations.
 In order to make better and more clear (or
higher resolution) radio images, radio
astronomers often combine several smaller
telescopes, or receiving dishes, into an array.
Together, the dishes can act as one large
telescope whose size equals the total area
occupied by the array.
 The Very Large Array (VLA) is one of the world's
premier astronomical radio observatories. The
VLA consists of 27 antennas arranged in a huge
"Y" pattern up to 36 km