Electromagnetic radiation wave nature

DUAL NATURE OF ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION WAVES AND PARTICLES... 

Electromagnetic radiation has its origins in atomic and molecular processes. Experiments demonstrating reflection, refraction, diffraction and interference phenomena show that the radiation has wave-like characteristics, while its emission and absorption are better explained in terms of a particulate or quantum nature. Although its properties and behaviour can be expressed mathematically, the exact nature of the radiation remains unknown. 

An X-ray fluorescence spectrometer needs to resolve the different peaks, identify them and measure their area to quantify the data. There are two forms of X-ray spectrometers (Fig. 5.5), which differ in the way in which they characterize the secondary radiation - wavelength dispersive (WD), which measures the wavelength, and energy dispersive (ED), which measures the energy of the fluorescent X-ray (an illustration of the particle-wave duality nature of electromagnetic radiation, described in Section 12.2). 

The word radiant energy is the energy transmitted from one body to another in the form of radiations. This energy has wave nature and because it is associated with electric and magnetic fields, it is also called electro-magnetic radiations. The visible light, ultraviolet, infrared, X-rays, radio-waves and microwaves are all different forms of electromagnetic radiations. 

Electromagnetic radiation can be absorbed or emitted. The absorption of ultraviolet radiation by our skin may cause sunburn. When we cook food in a microwave oven, the absorption of microwave radiation by the water in the food causes the water molecules to vibrate, generating heat that cooks the food. However, when electromagnetic radiation is absorbed or emitted by matter, it behaves more like a stream of particles than as a wave motion. These particles are called photons and so electromagnetic radiation can be considered both as a stream of photons and as waves with characteristic properties, such as wavelength (1) and frequency (/). Therefore we say that electromagnetic radiation has a dual nature wave motion and streams of photons. 

In this final section, it is shown that the three magnetic field components of electromagnetic radiation in 0(3) electrodynamics are Beltrami vector fields, illustrating the fact that conventional Maxwell-Heaviside electrodynamics are incomplete. Therefore Beltrami electrodynamics can be regarded as foundational, structuring the vacuum fields of nature, and extending the point of view of Heaviside, who reduced the original Maxwell equations to their presently accepted textbook form. In this section, transverse plane waves are shown to be solenoidal, complex lamellar, and Beltrami, and to obey the Beltrami equation, of which B is an identically nonzero solution. In the Beltrami electrodynamics, therefore, the existence of the transverse 1 = implies that of , as in 0(3) electrodynamics. 

The dominant characteristic of the electrical and magnetic fields that comprise electromagnetic radiation is their periodically oscillating nature, a fact that enables us to describe them by the mathematics of waves. For light scattering, it is the electric field that is of interest. The oscillating nature of an electric field propagating in the positive direction is described by the equation... 

In some instances electromagnetic radiation behaves like a wave. In other instances electromagnetic radiation behaves more like a particle. Which behavior more accurately describes the true nature of electromagnetic radiation ... 

Studies of black-body radiation led to Planck s hypothesis of the quantization of electromagnetic radiation. The photoelectric effect provided evidence of the particulate nature of electromagnetic radiation diffraction provided evidence of its wave nature. 

This section reviews the evidence for the wave nature of light and of X-rays, and then puts these two forms of radiation into the context of electromagnetic radiation in general. 

The experimental evidence discussed so far in this chapter leaves no possible doubt for the dual nature of electromagnetic radiation. It does not however make it easy to understand. How can something behave sometimes as waves, sometimes as particles This question will be raised again in connection with electrons and other microscopic particles in Chapter 2, and the difficulties discussed in more detail there (see Section 2.4). At this point, it is appropriate to discuss some ideas which, without giving a complete answer, go part of the way towards one. 

In the study of chemistry, the properties and composition of matter are investigated, along with the nature of electromagnetic radiation and how it affects matter. Electromagnetic radiation is radiant energy that exhibits wave properties and travels at the speed of light (when in a vacuum). 

If you recall from the beginning of this chapter, some of the work that led to the development of the modem atomic theory was done by scientists Max Planck, Albert Einstein, Louis de Broglie, Werner Heisenberg, Niels Bohr, and Erwin Shrodinger. The first work centered around light (electromagnetic radiation), while the later work focused on the wave-like nature of matter. The AP test does not probe too deeply into the theoretical considerations of any of these scientists, but some calculations have popped up on previous tests. Therefore, let s turn our attention to some of the equations associated with these scientists work. 

This, plus the quantization of the normal modes of vibration of the electromagnetic radiation field (just demonstrated), form, together, the quantum-mechanical basis for the wave-particle duality A wave can become a particle, and vice versa, but you can never make a simultaneous experiment to test both the wave and the particle nature of the same system. 

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