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Chemistry / What is a wave?
« on: 29/04/2016 13:43:25 »Quote from: McQueen
Out of these "waves" only ocean waves are true waves that disperse their energy across the wave front i.e., the energy is shared in commonImagine an AM radio transmitter, delivering (say) 100kW at 1MHz. This emits radio waves, and the 100kW is dispersed across the whole wave front as is spreads out from the transmitter.
I don't have a problem seeing the radio waves as copious coherent photons, just as I don't have a problem seeing a series of ocean waves as the motion of innumerable polar water molecules, each delivering their little bit of energy, and each subject to their own particular forces.
Why are radio waves fundamentally different from ocean waves, that prevents them from being true waves?
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