WAVES

WAVES

1. MECHANICAL

   • Mechanical waves move through a medium , or a substance.
   • Mechanical waves must move through a medium, such as the metal tracks, air or water. They cannot travel through a vacuum like space.
     • You must have particles to transfer energy, so without particles there can be no mechanical waves, and thus no sound.

2. ELECTROMAGNETIC

   • Waves propagate in different shapes, depending on if they are mechanical or electromagnetic.
   • Electromagnetic waves are light waves, but they don't just include the visible light we can see.
   • Electromagnetic waves propagate energy forward, but do not use a medium.
   • In all waves energy travels forward
   • Electromagnetic spectrum
     • Radio, Infrared (IR), Visible Light, Ultraviolet (UV), X-Ray, and Gamma Ray waves.
       • Higher frequency contain more energy so gamma rays have the most energy and radio waves have the least.
     • Your eyes are organs that detect only a frequency in the visible light spectrum of the electromagnetic waves.