We know light bounces and reflects through objects, but how is light actually created?
In: Physics
A few ways, but generally it involves electrons accelerating.
One of the ways of modelling light is as electromagnetic waves, or ripples in an electromagnetic field.
Anything with charge (such as electrons) creates an impression in the electromagnetic field. And if those charged things are accelerating they will create ripples in the field.
You can think of it like the surface of a lake. Things with charge are stuff floating on the surface. If they start getting moved around that will create ripples on the surface. But different, because fields and so on.
How the electrons are moving around determines the frequency or wavelength of the ripples (how many ripples per second or how far apart the ripples are) and that tells you what colour the light is if it is visible, or if it isn’t visible, what type of non-visible light it is (infra-red, ultraviolet, radio waves etc.).
There are a whole bunch of ways to get electrons to move around; you can put them in a local changing electric field and force them to wiggle about (how radio transmitters work), or you can just give them too much energy so they wiggle about to lose it (why warm things glow).
Latest Answers