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

Question

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 ;-;

In: 5

Answer 1

A normal magnet is a static magnetic field. Alternating the fields direction forms a wave. How fast that field alternates is the frequency of the electromagnetic wave.

The electromagnetic spectrum is a way to organize electromagnetic radiation in order of increasing frequency. The lowest frequency are radio and microwaves, which is probably what is being used for communication in your case. Then infrared and visible light are electromagnetic waves with higher frequency than that. Finally you get into ultraviolet, x rays, and gamma rays which are even higher frequency and are called ionizing radiation because they can energize your body to the point where it damages your cells.