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Difference Between Light and Radio Waves

June 18, 2013 Posted by Admin

Light vs Radio Waves
 

Energy is one of the primary constituents of the universe. It is conserved throughout the physical universe, never created or never destroyed but transforming from one form to another. Human technology, primarily, is based on the knowledge of methods to manipulate these forms to produce a desired outcome. In physics, energy is one of the core concepts of investigation, along with matter. Electromagnetic radiation was comprehensively explained by physicist James Clarke Maxwell in 1860`s.

Electromagnetic radiation can be considered as a transverse wave, where an electric field and a magnetic field oscillate in perpendicular to each other, and to the direction of propagation. The energy of the wave is in the electric and the magnetic fields and, therefore, the electromagnetic waves require no medium for propagation. In a vacuum, electromagnetic waves travel at the speed of light, which is a constant (2.9979 x 108 ms-1). The intensity/strength of the electric field and the magnetic field has a constant ratio, and they oscillate in phase. (i.e. the peaks and the troughs are occurring at the same time during propagation)

The electromagnetic waves have different wavelengths and frequencies. Based on the frequency, the properties displayed by these waves differ. Therefore, we have named different frequency ranges with different names. Light and radio waves are two ranges of electromagnetic radiation with different frequencies. When all the waves are listed in ascending or descending order, we call it the electromagnetic spectrum.

Source: Wikipedia

Light Waves

Light is the electromagnetic radiation between the wavelengths 380 nm to 740 nm. It is the range of the spectrum to which our eyes are sensitive. Therefore, humans see things using the visible light. The color perception of the human eye is based on the frequency/ wavelength of light.

With the increase in frequency (decrease in the wavelength), the colors vary from red to violet as shown in the diagram.

Source: Wikipedia

 

The region beyond the violet light in the EM spectrum is known as the ultra violet (UV). The region below the red region is known as the Infrared, and thermal radiation occurs in this region.

The sun emits most of its energy as UV and visible light. Therefore, life developed on earth has a very close relationship to the visible light as an energy source, media for visual perception, and many other things.

Radio Waves

The region is the EM spectrum below the infrared region is known as the Radio region. This region has wavelengths from 1mm to 100km (the corresponding frequencies are from 300 GHz to 3 kHz). This region is further divided into several regions as given in the table below. Radio waves are basically used for communication, scanning, and imaging processes.

Band name

Abbreviation

ITU band

Frequency and wavelength in the air

Usage

Tremendously low frequency

TLF

 

< 3 Hz

> 100,000 km

Natural and man-made electromagnetic noise

 

Extremely low frequency

ELF

3

 

3–30 Hz

100,000 km – 10,000 km

Communication with submarines

Super low frequency

SLF

 

30–300 Hz

10,000 km – 1000 km

Communication with submarines

 

Ultra low frequency

ULF

 

300–3000 Hz

1000 km – 100 km

Submarine communication, Communication within mines

 

Very low frequency

VLF

4

3–30 kHz

100 km – 10 km

Navigation, time signals, submarine communication, wireless heart rate monitors, geophysics

 

Low frequency

LF

5

30–300 kHz

10 km – 1 km

Navigation, time signals, AM long wave broadcasting (Europe and parts of Asia), RFID, amateur radio

Medium frequency

MF

6

300–3000 kHz

1 km – 100 m

AM (medium-wave) broadcasts, amateur radio, avalanche beacons

High frequency

HF

7

3–30 MHz

100 m – 10 m

Shortwave broadcasts, citizens’ band radio, amateur radio and over-the-horizon aviation communications, RFID, Over-the-horizon radar, Automatic link establishment (ALE) / Near Vertical Incidence Skywave (NVIS) radio communications, Marine and mobile radio telephony

Very high frequency

 

VHF

8

30–300 MHz

10 m – 1 m

FM, television broadcasts and line-of-sight ground-to-aircraft and aircraft-to-aircraft communications. Land Mobile and Maritime Mobile communications, amateur radio, weather radio

Ultra high frequency

UHF

9

300–3000 MHz

1 m – 100 mm

Television broadcasts, microwave ovens, microwave devices/communications, radio astronomy, mobile phones, wireless LAN, Bluetooth, ZigBee, GPS and two-way radios such as Land Mobile, FRS and GMRS radios, amateur radio

Super high frequency

SHF

10

3–30 GHz

100 mm – 10 mm

Radio astronomy, microwave devices/communications, wireless LAN, most modern radars, communications satellites, satellite television broadcasting, DBS, amateur radio

Extremely high frequency

EHF

11

30–300 GHz

10 mm – 1 mm

Radio astronomy, high-frequency microwave radio relay, microwave remote sensing, amateur radio, directed-energy weapon, millimeter wave scanner

Terahertz or Tremendously high frequency

THz or THF

12

300–3,000 GHz1 mm – 100 μm

Terahertz imaging – a potential replacement for X-rays in some medical applications, ultrafast molecular dynamics, condensed-matter physics, terahertz time-domain spectroscopy, terahertz computing/communications, sub-mm remote sensing, amateur radio

[Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_spectrum]

What is the difference between Light Wave and Radio wave?

• The radio waves and light are both electromagnetic radiations.

• Light is emitted from a relatively higher energy source/ transition than the radio waves.

• Light has higher frequencies than radio waves and has shorter wavelengths.

• Both light and radio waves display usual properties of waves, such as reflection, refraction, and so forth. However, the behavior of each property is dependent on the wavelength/ frequency of the wave.

• Light is a narrow band of frequency in the EM spectrum while radio occupies a large portion of the EM spectrum, which is further divided into different regions based on the frequencies.

Related posts:

Difference Between Speed of Light and Sound Difference Between Transverse and Longitudinal Waves Difference Between Sound Energy and Light Energy Difference Between Electromagnetic Waves and Radio Waves Difference Between Radio Waves and Microwaves

Filed Under: Physics Tagged With: light wave, light waves, Radio Wave, radio waves

About the Author: Admin

Coming from Engineering cum Human Resource Development background, has over 10 years experience in content developmet and management.

Comments

  1. hhhty says

    August 17, 2019 at 3:15 pm

    Actually, scientists have ALL been proven wrong.
    A test was shown that sound waves do infact travel in a vacuum.
    A small device that made sound every few seconds was placed inside of a plastic tube. The ends were capped with the same plexiglass material. A small plastic hose was put into a hole that was drilled into the large tube. The hose was attached to a vacuum. It sucked out all of the air, that met the standards for the vacuum in space( I believe it registered 28 on the meter. Whatever the standards were, it met).
    Then the noise maker was turned on. From standing outside, everyone could clearly hear the sound. That was a myth. I can’t believe that the scientific community has lied to us about such a fundamental science property. Looking at it, it makes sense why this has been misinformed to the public. Now, a lot of different theories have also been obliterated because of this FACT.

    Reply
    • Carolyn says

      July 10, 2020 at 8:36 pm

      It was not actually a vacuum because of the tube being in there. The tube picked up the resonance and conveyed it to any items it was attached to (assuming it was not floating). Science is not a rabbit hole, stop believing that it is.

      Reply
  2. Stew says

    September 11, 2019 at 2:23 am

    How was the noise-maker supported inside the tube? Any contact of the noise-maker with the tube, no matter how dampened, would allow the outside of the tube to become a “sounding board” for the noise-maker and therefore transmit the sound through the air outside the tube to the listeners.

    Reply
  3. Adim says

    December 29, 2020 at 12:38 pm

    Nice transition of info, I appreciate it !

    Reply

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