Do radio waves create light? It's more difficult to understand the things we can't see than those that we can. The simulation compares the relatively small range of visible light to the entire electromagnetic spectrum. It graphs the size of each wave and shows an object of comparable size.

Concepts

light waves, electromagnetic waves, wavelength, frequency, electromagnetic spectrum, visible light, light spectrum

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Additional Tags

science

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Instructional Ideas

• If the light wave we can see was the size of a human rather than the size of a protozoan, figure out the relative scale of the other types of waves

Classroom Considerations

• Assumes prior knowledge of the wave spectrum, frequency, and wavelength
• Requires a free CK-12 account to access the interactive

Pros

• Includes a video walk-through of how to use the simulator
• Provides challenge questions in the simulator in addition to the worksheet questions

Cons

• None

Common Core

RST.9-10.4 RST.11-12.4