What “is” a radio signal-?

[watchingfromafar]

I know we know how to detect a radio signal.

I know we know how to send a radio signal.

I know a radio signal can travel through a vacuum.

I know a radio signal can travel through a solid object.

But this does not tell me what a radio signal “IS”.

Anybody have a clue?

 

[Mousterian]

'Radio' waves are simply a small part of the electromagnetic spectrum, like visible light, or microwaves.
We categorize these sections of the spectrum to indicate, basically, how we detect them.
various parts of the spectrum interact differently with the medium through which they pass.
Thus, 'visible light' will pass through things we see as 'transparent', but not through a lot of other stuff.
Similarly, 'radio' waves will pass through lots of media, but not others.
But the bottom line, as far as we are concerned, is that radio waves are 'light' that we can't see with our eyes.
You'll need to get in to a physics study to learn why these things happen.

 

[Mousterian]

 

[flacaltenn]

I know we know how to detect a radio signal.

I know we know how to send a radio signal.

I know a radio signal can travel through a vacuum.

I know a radio signal can travel through a solid object.

But this does not tell me what a radio signal “IS”.

Anybody have a clue?

It's in a class of energy called Electromagnetic Radiation. It is more "radiation" than it is physical. Light is also also ElectroMagnetic radiation and is often shown on the SAME graphs with "radio waves". Because they all obey roughly the same rules of propagation thru space and the atmosphere.

Just like light, radio waves are characterized by their frequency and wavelength. And both can focused and directed (in different ways) to change their concentration and direction. That's the function of lenses and gratings for light and antennas for radio waves.

Because the energy in a radio wave is "self contained" in both a magnetic and electrical charge package, there is no need for a "medium" to transport it in vacuums or space unlike sound waves which are simple compression of other physical mediums (air, water, etc) and depend on those mediums to travel.

 

[Mousterian]

Interestingly, plants use pretty much the same tiny slice of the electromagnetic spectrum to fuel their biology.
This points to the fact that we are descended from the same primitive life forms as plants.
Not only descended from apes, but, ultimately, related to cabbages...

 

[Crepitus]

I know we know how to detect a radio signal.

I know we know how to send a radio signal.

I know a radio signal can travel through a vacuum.

I know a radio signal can travel through a solid object.

But this does not tell me what a radio signal “IS”.

Anybody have a clue?

It's an electromagnetic wave.

 

[james bond]

Let there be light = EMS.

 

[watchingfromafar]

But the bottom line, as far as we are concerned, is that radio waves are 'light' that we can't see with our eyes.

I thought "light" was a product of photons.

as in---
The photon is the fundamental particle of visible light.

In some ways, visible light behaves like a wave phenomenon, but in other respects it acts like a stream of high-speed, submicroscopic particles. Isaac Newton was one of the first scientists to theorize that light consists of particles. Modern physicists have demonstrated that the energy in any electromagnetic field is made up of discrete packets. The term photon (meaning "visible-light particle") was coined for these energy packets. Particle-like behavior is not restricted to the visible-light portion of the electromagnetic radiation spectrum, however. Radio waves, infrared rays, visible light, ultraviolet rays, X rays, and gamma rays all consist of photons, each of which contains a particular amount of energy that depends on the wavelength.
What is photon? - Definition from WhatIs.com

A photon has mass; a radio wave does not.

 

[watchingfromafar]

It's an electromagnetic wave.

I am trying to understand that. An electromagnetic wave has mass. It has negitive and positive poles whereas radio waves have neither. I am still no closer to understanding what a radio signal "is".

 

[Checkerboard Strangler]

Go study for your license:

Home

 

[DOTR]

But the bottom line, as far as we are concerned, is that radio waves are 'light' that we can't see with our eyes.

I thought "light" was a product of photons.

as in---
The photon is the fundamental particle of visible light.

In some ways, visible light behaves like a wave phenomenon, but in other respects it acts like a stream of high-speed, submicroscopic particles. Isaac Newton was one of the first scientists to theorize that light consists of particles. Modern physicists have demonstrated that the energy in any electromagnetic field is made up of discrete packets. The term photon (meaning "visible-light particle") was coined for these energy packets. Particle-like behavior is not restricted to the visible-light portion of the electromagnetic radiation spectrum, however. Radio waves, infrared rays, visible light, ultraviolet rays, X rays, and gamma rays all consist of photons, each of which contains a particular amount of energy that depends on the wavelength.
What is photon? - Definition from WhatIs.com

A photon has mass; a radio wave does not.

Sorry but a photon has no mass.

 

[toobfreak]

I know we know how to detect a radio signal.

I know we know how to send a radio signal.

I know a radio signal can travel through a vacuum.

I know a radio signal can travel through a solid object.

But this does not tell me what a radio signal “IS”.

Anybody have a clue?

Put simply, "radio" waves are the lowest bottom portion of the electromagnetic spectrum originally postulated by Maxwell in the 19th century as "Hertzian" waves. They are commonly generated by many astronomical bodies in space and are convenient to us here because their wavelengths lend themselves to easy (low energy) generation that can be bounced off the ionosphere around the earth, they can penetrate the atmosphere from space for communication, they couple to the Earth in a way so as to enable them to go around bends and over hills, and at low enough frequencies can even penetrate the ocean to allow communication with subs far out to sea and deep under water, which makes them very practical and useful to us.

Like all EM phenomena, they are merely a radiating wavefront of alternating electric potential. As the electric field crosses a conductor, its magnetic component induces a current to flow in it which is analogous to the originating signal, hence "wireless" communication.

"Radio" then is merely the simple process of using the radio wave as a higher frequency "carrier" of "intelligence" (signal), by simply modulating the carrier with an audio (AM/FM) or television/video, etc., signal. Received by a circuit tuned to resonate (be sensitive to) the desired frequency, it is then a fairly simple process to strip the intelligence off the carrier via a "detector" circuit, then down convert and amplify it to usable (audible or visible) levels. Voila. Radio communication. You are now an expert.

BTW, Nikola Tesla and not Marconi, was the original inventor of radio communication.

 

[watchingfromafar]

Sorry but a photon has no mass.

Ok, after further research I find your statement correct.

What is the mass of a photon?
This question falls into two parts:
Does the photon have mass? After all, it has energy and energy is equivalent to mass.
Photons are traditionally said to be massless.
This is a figure In classical electromagnetic theory, light turns out to have energy E and momentum p, and these happen to be related by E = pc. Quantum mechanics introduces the idea that light can be viewed as a collection of "particles": photons. Even though these photons cannot be brought to rest, and so the idea of rest mass doesn't really apply to them, we can certainly bring these "particles" of light into the fold of equation (1) by just considering them to have no rest mass. That way, equation (1) gives the correct expression for light, E = pc, and no harm has been done. Equation (1) is now able to be applied to particles of matterand "particles" of light. It can now be used as a fully general equation, and that makes it very useful.

Is there any experimental evidence that the photon has zero rest mass?
Alternative theories of the photon include a term that behaves like a mass, and this gives rise to the very advanced idea of a "massive photon". If the rest mass of the photon were non-zero, the theory of quantum electrodynamics would be "in trouble" primarily through loss of gauge invariance, which would make it non-renormalisable; also, charge conservation would no longer be absolutely guaranteed, as it is if photons have zero rest mass. But regardless of what any theory might predict, it is still necessary to check this prediction by doing an experiment.

It is almost certainly impossible to do any experiment that would establish the photon rest mass to be exactly zero. The best we can hope to do is place limits on it. A non-zero rest mass would introduce a small damping factor in the inverse square Coulomb law of electrostatic forces. That means the electrostatic force would be weaker over very large distances.
What is the mass of a photon?

Ok, this still does not tell me "what" a radio wave "IS"

 

[toobfreak]

But the bottom line, as far as we are concerned, is that radio waves are 'light' that we can't see with our eyes.

I thought "light" was a product of photons.

as in---
The photon is the fundamental particle of visible light.

In some ways, visible light behaves like a wave phenomenon, but in other respects it acts like a stream of high-speed, submicroscopic particles. Isaac Newton was one of the first scientists to theorize that light consists of particles. Modern physicists have demonstrated that the energy in any electromagnetic field is made up of discrete packets. The term photon (meaning "visible-light particle") was coined for these energy packets. Particle-like behavior is not restricted to the visible-light portion of the electromagnetic radiation spectrum, however. Radio waves, infrared rays, visible light, ultraviolet rays, X rays, and gamma rays all consist of photons, each of which contains a particular amount of energy that depends on the wavelength.
What is photon? - Definition from WhatIs.com

A photon has mass; a radio wave does not.

Sorry but a photon has no mass.

We are quickly getting far astray of laymen terms, but the "photon" is merely the force carrier as a unit of "quanta" with a particular charge, spin, and energy state which conveys the charged lepton component (no strong interaction) that combined with certain quarks (strong interaction), combine to form 1st generational Hadrons (ordinary matter). At high enough energies, the photon conveys the electromagnetic wavelengths of visible light (and beyond). At low enough energies, it conveys the electric field of a radio wave.

 

[watchingfromafar]

I think I found my own answer.
Electromagnetic radiation is transmitted in waves or particles at different wavelengths and frequencies. This broad range of wavelengths is known as the electromagnetic (EM) spectrum. The spectrum is generally divided into seven regions in order of decreasing wavelength and increasing energy and frequency. The common designations are radio waves, microwaves, infrared (IR), visible light, ultraviolet (UV), X-rays and gamma-rays.

Radio waves have the longest wavelengths in the EM spectrum, according to NASA, ranging from about 1 millimeter (0.04 inches) to more than 100 kilometers (62 miles). They also have the lowest frequencies, from about 3,000 cycles per second or 3 kilohertz (kHz) up to about 300 billion hertz, or 300 gigahertz (GHz).

What Are Radio Waves?

A radio wave consists of "particles" that have no measurable mass. Hence, they exists only in the trail they leave behind.

Or so it seems

 

[toobfreak]

A non-zero rest mass would introduce a small damping factor in the inverse square Coulomb law of electrostatic forces.

Why?

That means the electrostatic force would be weaker over very large distances.

You're a jackass. This whole thread is a rib, right?

 

[watchingfromafar]

Ok, now I am even more lost than before.

What is an atom?

An atom a fundamental piece of matter. (Matter is anything that can be touched physically.) Everything in the universe (except energy) is made of matter, and, so, everything in the universe is made of atoms.
An atom itself is made up of three tiny kinds of particles called subatomic particles: protons, neutrons, and electrons. The protons and the neutrons make up the center of the atom called the nucleus and the electrons fly around above the nucleus in a small cloud. The electrons carry a negative charge and the protons carry a positive charge. In a normal (neutral) atom the number of protons and the number of electrons are equal. Often, but not always, the number of neutrons is the same, too.
What is an atom?

 

[watchingfromafar]

You're a jackass. This whole thread is a rib, right?

I did not state the post, I just posted what others have said.

In your own words; You're a jackass.

 

[Crepitus]

It's an electromagnetic wave.

I am trying to understand that. An electromagnetic wave has mass. It has negitive and positive poles whereas radio waves have neither. I am still no closer to understanding what a radio signal "is".

It does have mass. It's made up of photons. Also they are electrically neutral.

 

[Checkerboard Strangler]

I think I found my own answer.
Electromagnetic radiation is transmitted in waves or particles at different wavelengths and frequencies. This broad range of wavelengths is known as the electromagnetic (EM) spectrum. The spectrum is generally divided into seven regions in order of decreasing wavelength and increasing energy and frequency. The common designations are radio waves, microwaves, infrared (IR), visible light, ultraviolet (UV), X-rays and gamma-rays.

Radio waves have the longest wavelengths in the EM spectrum, according to NASA, ranging from about 1 millimeter (0.04 inches) to more than 100 kilometers (62 miles). They also have the lowest frequencies, from about 3,000 cycles per second or 3 kilohertz (kHz) up to about 300 billion hertz, or 300 gigahertz (GHz).

What Are Radio Waves?

A radio wave consists of "particles" that have no measurable mass. Hence, they exists only in the trail they leave behind.

Or so it seems

"We are the Joy Boys of radio, we chase electrons to and fro."

That's radio, electrons vibrating at a frequency high enough that they are able to "radiate" off of a tuned antenna element and cause neighboring electrons to vibrate along with them at a certain voltage. (RF energy) (the RF equivalent of a tuning fork)

Tuned antenna elements in proximity will resonate and the resulting current is detected in a tuned tank circuit, which is the RF equivalent of a tuning fork or tuned wine goblet.

TANK CIRCUIT

That's vastly oversimplified of course.