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Creation Day One: "Let there be light!"
Of all the scientific discoveries ever made, few have had a greater impact on our lives than those made by Michael Faraday and James Clerk Maxwell. By discovering the properties of electromagnetic spectrum, Faraday and Maxwell transformed our everyday lives. We use it whenever we turn on a radio or television, make a call on a cell phone, have an X-ray image taken of our body or use GPS to find a location . It’s hard for us to imagine living in a world where such things don’t exist, yet we rarely give thought to the two men who made them possible. The following chart illustrates the entire electromagnetic spectrum of light waves based upon the wavelength and frequency of specific energy sources found throughout the universe.
Energy Sources of the Electromagnetic Spectrum
An atom absorbs energy.
A photon of light is released.
An Atom
Electromagnetic radiation is produced when an atom absorbs energy. The absorbed energy causes one or more electrons to change their location around an atom's nucleus. When the electron returns to its original position, a an electromagnetic wave of energy ( a photon of light ) is produced. Depending on the kind of atom and the amount of energy released , this electromagnetic radiation can take the form of radio waves, microwaves, infrared waves, visible light, ultraviolet waves, x-rays and gamma rays .
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