What exactly is an EMP (Electromagnetic-pulse)? Isn’t light just an electromagnetic beam? How exactly is light and electromagnetism connected?

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Hello all,

I’m working on a sci-fi project rn, and one of the creatures communicates telepathically via electromagnetic waves. However, I’m kinda confused as to exactly what “electromagnetic” means. EMPs, electromagnets, and (from what I can tell) light are all electromagnetic, what do they have in common that makes them such?

Thanks in advance 🙂

EDIT: I know I said “how is these things connected in the title”, forgive my grammar mistakes ;-;

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Anonymous 0 Comments

Electricity and magnetism are directly related things. Typically they both need to exist near a source, but under some specific circumstances they can form a wave that travels freely away from its source. This wave must contain both electrostatic *and* magnetic parts or it will not travel freely.

This wave is light, radio, microwaves, gamma radiation, and a few others. The frequency of the wave (how quickly it waves) determines which one it is.

This wave can revert *back* to electric and magnetic movements. An antenna is designed specifically to catch these waves and convert them to electricity.

Many devices can work as an antenna, and so a very strong radio wave can generate high voltages where they shouldn’t be. This breaks electronics. The inside of a microwave could be called an “EMP”, although it isn’t particularly strong.

The creature you describe just uses radio to communicate – it’s that simple.

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