Light as a wave and the

electromagnetic theory

imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/Images/basic/gamma/matter_vs_antimatter.gif 2

VIBGYOR or ROYGBIV?

Violet is most refracted!

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 Pot of gold at the
end of the rainbow?
Rene Descarte’s sketch
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Iridescence

?
http://members.tripod.com/~EmpressEmpress/urn.jpg
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Iridescence Water waves and
its ripple patterns

scienceclarified.com/images/uesc_06_img0317.jpg

How waves combine Sound surround

Amplitude increases Amplitude decreases

Light is a wave! Wave theory explains

Wavy shadows Poisson spot

physicslearning.colorado.edu/pictures/6C20.15.jpg
 Other optical phenomena can be
Huygen-Fresnel wave construction
explained!
! Reflection
! Refraction
! Dispersion
! Image formation
! Scattering
! Shadows and eclipses
! Tyndall effect
! Iridiscence
headwize.com/images2/e_huygen.gif

If light is a wave,

Light as an
electromagnetic wave
matter waves

what of it
and where does it waves?
image; www.tjhsst.edu/~jlafever/wanimate/Wave_Properties2.html
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Attraction and repulsion of charges The electric field concept

! Charles Coulomb ! How does a distant

studied the forces charge know if other
between electrical charges have moved?
charges.
! Michael Faraday
! Coulomb’s Law is conceived electric field
similar to Newton’s lines or “Lines of Force”
Law of Gravitation: to resolve his discomfort
with the action-at-a-
distance concept.
1736-1806
1791 - 1867

The field lines Charge-field-charge interaction

! Electric field lines point along the direction which a “test A 2nd charge interacts with the field
charge” would experience a force. as if interacting-at-a-distance
with the first charge.

! Change in the force experienced by other charges is

not instantaneous.
 Ferromagnetism Electromagnetism

! The magnetism associated ! Hans Christian

with iron, particularly Oersted and Andre-
magnetite was a long known Marie Ampere showed
phenomenon. that an electrical
! Similar to electric charges, current (moving
there are two types of charges) could
magnetic poles: north and influence, and be
south.* influenced by
magnets.

* Nobody has ever been able to observe a single

isolated monopole (a magnetic monopole).

The Magnetic Field More of Michael…

! Moving charges create magnetic fields.*

! Faraday also constructed the first electric generator
! Magnetic fields exert forces on other moving
based on the electromagnetic induction principle
charges (and conductors carrying electrical
he discovered.
current).
! Moving a wire through a magnetic field generates
! This electro-dynamic principle makes the electric
an electrical current. Moving a magnet around a
motor possible (as first constructed by Faraday.)
wire does the same.
! It turns out, having a changing magnetic field will
cause charges to move (i.e. causes a force on
* Even ferromagnetism originates from microscopic electrical currents in the
iron. The magnetic field of the earth is thought to be caused by electric electric charges).
currents within earth’s soft core (i.e. Dynamo Theory).
 What we have so far… Enter James Clerk Maxwell…
! Electric charges create electric fields. ! Organized the existing
! Moving electric charges create magnetic fields. concepts of electricity and
! Changing (time-varying) magnetic fields create magnetism in a cohesive
electric fields. mathematical framework.
! Added his own discovery:
changing (time-varying)
We have a bunch of observations that relate electric fields create
magnetic fields
electricity and magnetism,
but we lack a cohesive, organized theory… Maxwell is the Newton of the modern physics.

chemteam.info

Maxwell’s Equations Electromagnetic Waves

! According to Maxwell’s
equations,
electromagnetic waves
travel at the speed of
light!
! Maxwell concluded: Light
is an electromagnetic
! Maxwell did not form these equations.* wave.
! But by combining them in a consistent unifying theory, he predicted
the existence of traveling electromagnetic waves with a very
interesting property...
* He did make a slight correction to the last equation.
 The EM Spectrum

! Visible light is only a small segment of the very

wide electromagnetic spectrum.
! The properties of different magnetic waves
depend on their wavelength (frequency), but
they all represent oscillating electric and
magnetic fields.

The visible spectrum

 most scattered
afternoon dawn

least scattered

to the sun

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EM: atom unstable!!

EM: continuous spectrum only!!

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