Light for dummies

[thegdin]

im trying to learn what light is but it seems that im a phd or two shy of being able to understand what i read when i try to learn on my own. heres what im trying to learn. i want to know what light actually is. as in, what is it made of? from what i have researched so far i gather that we have a strong grasp on the concept of light but we dont know what light is fundamentally. i think light travels through a vacuum much like a particle would but light isnt a particle, its a wave. if its a wave, what medium is the wave travelling through? does light have the same makeup as a magnetic field? if it does, what the hell is a magnetic field? hehe

 

ok, i have so many little tid bits of info, some laws and some theoretical bouncing around in my head but i cant put them together for a full understanding. can someone please help me in the most simple im an idiot way?

 

[swansont]

Light is an oscillating electromagnetic field. It turns out that a changing electric field induces a magnetic field, and that a changing magnetic field induces an electric field. When you do it right, you get a wave of mutually inducing oscillations. That's light.

[Tranquility]

You mention that light is a wave but also acts like a particle. This is exactly the case. In some situations it behaves like a wave (it can be defracted for example) but it also behaves like a particle in other situations. When we talk about light as a particle we assign the term photon, light is made up of photons. Each photon is a quantity of energy. Light at different wavelengths (colours) have different amount of energy when seen as photons.

 

In conclusion we think we understand light, but honestly we cannot really explain it's particle wave duality. Hope this helps

[thegdin]

im getting a good grasp on the properties of light. the majority of my confusion lies in what the electromagnetic field is actually made of.? i guess what im asking is, what is the fundamental make up of an electromagnetic field?

[toastywombel]

im getting a good grasp on the properties of light. the majority of my confusion lies in what the electromagnetic field is actually made of.? i guess what im asking is, what is the fundamental make up of an electromagnetic field?

 

Electromagnetic Fields are composite fields made up of electric fields and magnetic fields.

This is from the WHO website http://www.who.int/peh-emf/about/WhatisEMF/en/

 

"Electric fields are created by differences in voltage: the higher the voltage, the stronger will be the resultant field. Magnetic fields are created when electric current flows: the greater the current, the stronger the magnetic field. An electric field will exist even when there is no current flowing. If current does flow, the strength of the magnetic field will vary with power consumption but the electric field strength will be constant."

 

Hope this helps!

[swansont]

im getting a good grasp on the properties of light. the majority of my confusion lies in what the electromagnetic field is actually made of.? i guess what im asking is, what is the fundamental make up of an electromagnetic field?

 

Fields are a description, a model. For something to be "actually made of" something, it would have to be a real, physical object. The utility of electric and magnetic fields is that they help describe how things behave, which is what physics (and science, in general) is all about.