Why are humans not able to see,feel or hear radio waves? We are sensitive to the rest of the waves in the EM spectrum. If EM waves are composed of oscillating magnetic and electric fields, why am I not electrocuted by the electric constituent of the Radio waves?
In: Physics
> We are sensitive to the rest of the waves in the EM spectrum.
Why do you think that? Humans can directly detect just visible light. This is is a very small frequency spectrum of 380 to 740 nanometers or 430–770 THz depending on if you look a wavelength and frequency. Anything above or below we can’t detect directly.
You can detect another part of the spectrum the way it heats you up, IR light will heat up the surface of the skin and you will feel the change in temperature. Radiowave can heat you up too and you can feel that. The difference is that they will penetrate you deeper and heat you up on the inside too.
If you were in a microwave oven you would feel it when it heated up your skin but at the same time, it would heat the inside of you and damages cells that are more temperature-sensitive then the skin and damage them.
It is not fundamentally different from how you damage your retina if you look directly at the sun but your skin is fine being exposed to direct sunlight. For radio and microwaves, you are quite transparent so they would heat up your retina just like your skin. The result is levels that damage your retina before you feel the heat on your skins. So for safety reasons, humans are not allowed to be in front of a radio or microwave transmitter that has enough power for you to feel it because it would be damaging you.
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