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The traditional, “proven” understanding of energy in the scientific
world is based in the electromagnetic spectrum. This is a continuum of
wavelengths and frequencies, which extends from the very low frequencies
with very long wavelengths (100 yards for the longest radio waves),
through our familiar radio frequencies and television. Going a little
higher we encounter microwaves. At the high end of the spectrum are the
x-rays and gamma rays, whose length is that of the nucleus of an atom.
Electromagnetic waves are transverse waves, similar to water waves in
the ocean or the waves seen on a guitar string. This is as opposed to
the compression waves of sound. Characteristics of electromagnetic waves
are wavelength (the length from one wave crest to the next - a
horizontal measure), frequency (the number of oscillations per second,
measured in Hertz (Hz)), amplitude (the height of a wave from trough to
crest, a vertical measure of the wave’s energy, relating to its
intensity or brightness (as in visible light)), and velocity (the speed
of travel through space. This is believed by conventional science to be
the same for all electromagnetic waves: the speed of light in a vacuum).
The “magnetic” component of an electromagnetic wave comes from the fact
that the changing electric fields of the wave form produce changing
magnetic fields. (Which produce changing electric fields, which produce
changing magnetic fields . . .) The electric field and the magnetic
field are perpendicular to one another, and both are perpendicular to
the direction the wave is moving.
The fact that the motion of electromagnetic waves can be described with
the mathematical qualities relating to distance, displacement, and speed
puts them in the category of vector waves. We can also conceptualize
them as traveling waves. |
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