• Question: How do the electric waves of phones and electronic devices go so fast?

    Asked by BossBob1234 to Chloe, Irene, Pierre, NULL, Uday on 13 Nov 2015. This question was also asked by 829ntrd48.
    • Photo: NULL

      NULL answered on 13 Nov 2015:

      Because they are really light. In fact, they have no weight at all. It’s all energy.

      I’m not a physicist, so that’s the most detail I can give…

    • Photo: Irene Regan

      Irene Regan answered on 13 Nov 2015:

      A phone is nothing more than a sophisticated two-way radio—a device that transmits, receives, and decodes electromagnetic waves.

      Electromagnetic waves come from the same kind of electric force that flows through your wall plug, and from the same kind of magnetic force that keeps your younger brother’s painting stuck to the refrigerator door.

      When electric and magnetic forces act together, they vibrate at right angles to each other and make electromagnetic radiation, or waves.

    • Photo: Uday Bangavadi

      Uday Bangavadi answered on 16 Nov 2015:

      The waves which are using in phone or other electronics used for communication uses electromagnetic waves. Which consists of Electric and Magnetic field. A time varying electric field produces a spatially varying magnetic field and a time varying magnetic field produces a spatially varying electric field. This varying electric and magnetic fields causes light to propagate on its own.

      Speed of this wave is 300000 Km/s. So Imagine you can reach from Dublin to Bangalore (India) in just 0.02 seconds.. Its less time than your eye blink.

    • Photo: Chloe Huseyin

      Chloe Huseyin answered on 17 Nov 2015:

      Phones use electromagnetic waves, (like Irene mentioned) when electric and magnetic forces act together, they vibrate at right angles to each other and make electromagnetic radiation, or waves… These waves are shaped like sinusoidal curves, which resemble smooth, up-and-down hills.

      The distance between the tops or the bottoms of these hills is known as the wavelength, see here for a picture of what I mean:

      These electromagnetic waves move across space at a certain number of repetitions, or cycles, per second; this speed is known as their frequency. It is measured in hertz—named after Heinrich Hertz, the German scientist who first measured them. Frequency and wavelength are indirectly proportional: a wave with a high frequency has a short wavelength, and one with a low frequency has a long wavelength.

      There are seven groups of electromagnetic frequencies, each moving through space at its own wavelength (however all electromagnetic waves travel at the speed of light). Radio, microwave, infra-red, visible light, ultraviolet, X–ray, and gamma ray waves make up what is known as the electromagnetic spectrum.

      Mobile phones use radio waves which travel at the speed of light (even though they have long wavelengths which make them much safer than gamma ray waves) so this is how the devices work so fast.

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