Use your mouse to drag the negative charge
up or down, then let it go to start it oscillating.
Use the slider to adjust spring tension.
This is cool.
Wiggling one charge causes the field lines attached to it to wiggle,
and after a time the other charge starts to wiggle!
It's just like a rope connecting two rocks.
Yes, the wave here consists of a wiggling line of electric force which you can think of
as being "attached" to the vibrating charge.
Notice that it takes a certain time for the wave
to move from one particle to the other.
Check out what happens to the shape of the wave as you increase
the frequency by wiggling it up and down faster. (The
wiggling
rate changes when you adjust the tension in the spring.)
Does the distance between peaks (wavelength)
decrease or
increase?
Click here to learn more about the connection
between wavelength, frequency and the speed of light.
Yeah, that all makes sense, but don't expect me to believe
that particles as small as electrons are attached to springs.
How is an electron made to wiggle -- I mean, how is its speed
or direction of motion changed?
That's an excellent question. You're right, there are no
springs -- so how do electrons wiggle?
And do they always produce radiation when they wiggle?
There are two answers, one for "long"
wavelength radiation, like microwaves, radio waves and TV waves, and
another answer for light waves, ultraviolet and x-rays.
In fact, the second answer challenged the greatest physicists of the
early 20th century, and led to the revolution in physics called
quantum mechanics.
Now you have to decide what kind of waves you want to see created.
Learn more about wave shapes in order to understand
microwaves, radio and TV waves, produced by oscillating currents.
Leaving Electromagnetic Radiation
Click "Quantum Atom" to learn how X-rays and light waves are produced by electrons moving in and
near atoms.
This is cool.
Wiggling one charge causes the field lines attached to it to wiggle,
and after a time the other charge starts to wiggle!
It's just like a rope connecting two rocks.
Yes, the wave here consists of a wiggling line of electric force which you can think of
as being "attached" to the vibrating charge.
Notice that it takes a certain time for the wave
to move from one particle to the other.
Check out what happens to the shape of the wave as you increase
the frequency by wiggling it up and down faster. (The
wiggling
rate changes when you adjust the tension in the spring.)
Does the distance between peaks (wavelength)
decrease or
increase?
Yeah, that all makes sense, but don't expect me to believe
that particles as small as electrons are attached to springs.
How is an electron made to wiggle -- I mean, how is its speed
or direction of motion changed?
That's an excellent question. You're right, there are no
springs -- so how do electrons wiggle?
And do they always produce radiation when they wiggle?
There are two answers, one for "long"
wavelength radiation, like microwaves, radio waves and TV waves, and
another answer for light waves, ultraviolet and x-rays.
In fact, the second answer challenged the greatest physicists of the
early 20th century, and led to the revolution in physics called
quantum mechanics.
Now you have to decide what kind of waves you want to see created.
Learn more about wave shapes in order to understand
microwaves, radio and TV waves, produced by oscillating currents.
