Radio Wave Speed

Radio Wave Speed

Radio waves are electromagnetic waves and hence have speed of light. However radio wave are believed to travel at speed higher than that of light as in case of “Pulsers”.
Wave Speed Definition
It is defined as distance travelled by a particular wave crest in a given time interval.
Formula for Wave Speed
Wave SD formula is given below:
Wave SD= λ * v
Here λ= wave length
And  v = wave frequency


Please express your views of this topic Visible Electromagnetic Spectrum by commenting on blog.

What is Wave Speed

A wave is produced as a result of energy form that can travel from one point to other. Let’s take example of water waves that arise when a swimmer dives into the pool. The dive produce disturbance and energy of pool produce water waves that travel from the point of dive to the other side of pool. The wave can be thought of as a series of alternate crests and troughs. Now think about a particular crest moving through the pool. If we measure the distance travelled by that particular wave crest in a given time period, we are measuring the speed (SD) of wave. Suppose that a wave crest travels 10 m in 5 seconds, then the wave SD will be 10/5= 2 m/s. Similarly if a wave crest is travelling 15 m in 5 seconds, then the wave SD will be 15/5= 3 m/s.
Let’s consider other aspect of wave SD. So far we have seen that a wave is travelling from one point to other point in a pool or any other medium. If we suppose that the wave faces some other medium at its extreme point of travelling, the wave will be reflected and will travel in opposite direction now. For example if we produce a wave in a slinky, it will travel to the end where it encounters the wall. The wave is reflected and is made to travel back to its origin i.e. back to the first extreme.

Is this topic wavelength to frequency equation hard for you? Watch out for my coming posts.

Speed of a Wave Formula

Wave SD is measured using following formula:
Wave SD (v)= wave frequency * wavelength
Here wave frequency is measured in Hertz and wavelength in meter, the wave SD comes in meter/ second.
Form the above equation; we can deduce that wave SD is directly proportional to wave frequency and wave length. As we know that wave frequency is inversely proportional to the wavelength, with increasing wave frequency, wavelength decreases. Hence the wave speed remain almost constant with the above two changing parameters.