the.com/electromagnetic radiation
Light's entire extended family, from radio waves to gamma rays, all moving at the same cosmic speed limit.
means Energy that travels as coupled electric and magnetic waves, spanning radio, microwaves, infrared, visible light, ultraviolet, X-rays, and gamma rays, all traveling through a vacuum at the speed of light.
from Built from three borrowed pieces: 'electro-' and 'magnetic,' fused in the 1800s once scientists like Ørsted and Faraday showed electricity and magnetism were really one force, and 'radiation,' from Latin radiare, 'to shine or emit rays,' itself from radius, 'spoke of a wheel, ray.' The full term crystallized after James Clerk Maxwell's 1860s equations proved light itself was an electromagnetic wave — uniting lightning, magnets, and sunlight into a single family tree.
- what it is
- self-propagating wiggle of electric and magnetic fields
- speed
- always 299,792,458 m/s in vacuum, no exceptions
- visible slice
- humans see only one octave of the whole spectrum
- dual nature
- behaves as both wave and particle, physics never apologized