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Physics for Kids4 chapters | 67 lessons
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Antonio was flying his paper airplane in the house when it went behind the television. He saw that there were a lot of cables going from the wall and boxes to the TV and one didn't go into the electrical outlet. He asked his father why there was a cable coming out of the wall that wasn't an electrical cord. His father told him that if it weren't for that cable, they wouldn't have a TV picture or sound. Well, Antonio wanted to know how radios work without wall cables. Do you know how radios and other things work without cables? It's through something called radio waves.
Hey, let's make a radio wave. Here's how to do it.
You just made a radio wave. It isn't very strong, but it's a wave!
Now let's learn more about radio waves!
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Think of a magnet and your refrigerator. When you put a magnet on there it sticks and sometimes is even pulled toward the refrigerator. You can't see it, but there's a magnetic field that pulls them together.
Likewise, if you rub a balloon against your hair or cat it will stick to the wall through something you may have heard of called static electricity. If you want, you can go give it a try now. The lesson will be here when you get back.
Radio waves are actually electromagnetic waves. Electromagnetic waves are made when a magnetic field and an electric field come together to make a wave. This isn't a wave you can see, but it's a wave that provides us with sound, energy, colors, x-rays and other cool stuff.
Without radio waves, our life would be dramatically different. We wouldn't have cell phones, radios, baby monitors, and airplanes wouldn't know where to go. Without radio waves, we couldn't have microwave ovens, garage door openers, or even satellites. Let's take a closer look at the radio wave.
When a transmitter sends a wave, it takes a receiver set to the same wave vibration to get that wave to turn into sound, data, pictures, or whatever.
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Depending on the length of a radio wave, the frequency, or 'channel' it travels on changes. When the receiver is set to the same wavelength, it can pick up information traveling on that particular wave.
For example, if you listen to radio station 610, it means that the wave is traveling at 610,000 cycles a second. That's pretty fast! A cycle is the top of one wave to the top of the next. Think about it in terms of ocean waves. From the top of one wave to the top of the next would be a cycle if it were a radio wave.
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Radio waves are actually electromagnetic waves: a magnetic field and an electric field together. These waves can be different lengths, or frequencies, so receivers set to that frequency can get the information traveling on that frequency. Without radio waves, we couldn't enjoy the music, news, sports or weather on the radio.
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Physics for Kids4 chapters | 67 lessons
{{courseNav.course.topics.length}} chapters | {{courseNav.course.mDynamicIntFields.lessonCount}} lessons | {{course.flashcardSetCount}} flashcard set{{course.flashcardSetCoun > 1 ? 's' : ''}}