EM spectrum & photons.

ocalhoun

So, light is composed of photons, and light is also just a range of frequencies on the EM spectrum.

Are emissions of other frequencies on the same spectrum also composed of photons?
I'm used to thinking of the duality of waves and particles of light being the same thing, but I just realized that I find it strange to think of magnetic waves being composed of photons. Or are lower frequency magnetic waves (like 900Mhz) composed of something else? electrons?

Kind of confusing for me all of the sudden, even though I've known all this for a while, it just now hit me as strange that magnetic waves would be composed of photons.

Xanatos

Im sure Indi will come along and explain this much better than I will, but I will take a crack at it anyways...

All electromagnetic waves have packets of energy known as photons. These waves include light, but also x-rays, gamma rays, and radio waves.

For some reason when people are taught this concept only the word light is used, however photons apply to all frequencies in the spectrum. The wave/particle duality of light is really the wave/particle duality of electromagnetic waves.

As frequency decreases, i.e. radio waves, the wave nature becomes much more apparent, while the particle nature is harder to detect. As frequency increases, i.e. gamma rays, the particle nature becomes more apparent, while the wave nature becomes less obvious.

Hope that clears it up a bit.

metalfreek

Light is compose of electromagnetic waves no matter what their frequency is. Visible light is a very small part of electromagnetic spectrum. All other part from infrared to x-rays and gamma rays are also electromagnetic waves. So basically all electromagnetic spectrum are composed of photon. Photon is a concept introduced to explain the particle nature of the electromagnetic waves.

Dennise

Don't forget that the energy of a photon is inversely proportional to wavelength.

This means that at lower frequencies (longer wavelengths), the photon has less energy and perhaps, can be ignored. As a particle, it's low energy at such wavelengths, is of little interest.

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