Are the different types of electromagnetic radiation just based on arbitrary divisions or is there specific properties each type has within their respective wavelength range?
In: Physics
The biggest solid divisions of EM radiation are A) what the average human can and cannot see with the naked eye, and B) what can and cannot cause ionization of atoms. frequencies of EM radiation above a certain threshold are energetic enough to knock away electrons from molecules, and this can cause weird stuff to happen chemically. This is bad for things that, like us, are biology, because biology relies on *very specific* chemistry in order to live, and randomly ionizing a molecule can cause that chemistry to go awry in spectacular (read:awful) ways.
The opposite of this is also true to some extent though: sometimes the radiation can hit a certain molecule in *just* such a way that it causes a beneficial mutation in DNA that is inheritable and ultimately drives evolution, but 99% of the time you just get cancer and die.
Latest Answers