Electromagnetic radiation

From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Electromagnetic waves are waves that travel at the speed of light. They contain an electric field and a magnetic field and carry different amounts of energy.

Quantum mechanics developed from the study of electromagnetic waves, which means visible light seen in the colors of the rainbow, but also other waves including the more energetic waves like ultraviolet light, x-rays, and gamma rays plus the waves with longer wavelengths including infrared waves, microwaves and radio waves. Sound waves do not travel at the speed of light.