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Electromagnetic Spectrum

Electromagnetic Spectrum

The amount of energy a photon has makes it sometimes behave more like a wave and sometimes more like a particle. This is called the "wave-particle duality" of light. It is important to understand that we are not talking about a difference in what radiation IS, but only in how it behaves. Low energy photons (such as radio) behave more like waves, while higher energy photons (such as X-rays) behave more like particles.




 

A service of the High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center (HEASARC), Dr. Andy Ptak (Director), within the Astrophysics Science Division (ASD) at NASA/GSFC

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