How fast does electromagnetic radiation travel

How long does it take for transmissions to get between DS1 and Earth? How often is DS1 in communication with Earth? What are radio waves? How is lag dealt with? When you listen to the radio, watch TV, or cook dinner in a microwave oven, you are using electromagnetic waves. Radio waves, television waves, and microwaves are all types of electromagnetic waves. They only differ from each other in wavelength. Wavelength is the distance between one wave crest to the next. Waves in the electromagnetic spectrum vary in size from very long radio waves the size of buildings, to very short gamma-rays smaller than the size of the nucleus of an atom.

Yet their size can be related to their energy. The smaller the wavelength the higher the energy. For example, a brick wall blocks visible light wave lengths. Smaller, more energetic, x-rays can pass through brick walls, but themselves are blocked by denser material such as lead. Radio: MW. Radio: VHF. This vibration creates a wave which has both an electric and a magnetic component. An electromagnetic wave transports its energy through a vacuum at a speed of 3.

The propagation of an electromagnetic wave through a material medium occurs at a net speed which is less than 3.

This is depicted in the animation below. The mechanism of energy transport through a medium involves the absorption and reemission of the wave energy by the atoms of the material. When an electromagnetic wave impinges upon the atoms of a material, the energy of that wave is absorbed.