Thread: Wave Physics
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Old 02-06-2005, 09:17 AM   #8 (permalink)
fckm
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Location: Ithaca, New York
I posted in another thread a couple months back about light and what light waves are, but now I can't find it

I'm sure you have seen the demonstration of magnetic force lines. I take a magnet, and place it bellow a peice of paper. Then, I sprinkle some iron fillings on the piece of paper. What do I see? I see that the iron fillings all line up, and make lines connecting one pole of the magnet with the other pole.

These lines are called lines of force. They behave a little bit like pieces of string. If I take a piece of string and I wiggle one end, that wiggle will travel down the piece of string to the other end. Similarly, if I wiggle the magnet, the force lines will also wiggle.

Now, instead of a magnet, we will use an electron. The force lines (aka, the Field) will look different than the magnet. Instead of connecting two ends, the force lines radiate outward from the electron like a child might draw rays radiating from the sun. These lines indicate the direction and magnitude that another charged particle would feel due to the presence of the electron.

If I grab that electron and wiggle it, the wiggle will travel outward along the force lines. The wiggle of the force lines is light. I can do the same thing with any charged matter, as long as I wiggle it or cause it to move non-inertially. Light is caused by the acceleration of charges.
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