Electromagnetism
BY MICHAELJOHN UGLO 
This is lecture number 13 in the Science in Action series. Welcome all on board. Prior to this lecture, there is a sentiment expressed by the not-so-well educated public that, the unhygienic settlement and slum dwellers and street sellers are surviving the Covid-19 pandemic threat whilst those in high offices and those in air conditioned homes, work stations and cars are falling victim. I hope some of us are taking up this research study area seriously as an important scientific and medical area to consider and do a PhD research paper on it. There should definitely be an answer for Covid–19 right there. Such finding can also be used as a method of diagnosis for other microbial diseases.
FOR the sake of this point, I as the author of the science text book Science in PNG, Pacific, Asia and Caribbean proposed the information and recommendation which our decision-makers can read and understand to make proper policies for the viral pandemic called the Covid-19. My discussion should come very soon for the benefit of PNG. Please keep reading this series on technology in the Science in Action Series.
Electromagnetism
Electromagnetism can be defined as electricity and magnetism combined together. They always work together as this is their dual property.
Electricity is as we know is flow of electrons and therefore is a flow of negative charges. Magnetism is an attractive force because of the nature of a magnet. Magnets do attract ferric and ferrous metals such as razor blades, pins, tins and you know that. So, in sum, electromagnetism can be simply referred to as a flow of electric current that has a magnetic effect around it.
Everything in the universe is made of matter. Matter is made of the electrons as one of the major building blocks. So those electrons can carry charges which are negative in nature. If you allow an electric current to pass though matter and the electrical conductors like metals
such as copper wire, that can allow the movement and flow of these electrons. The flow of these electrons at the same time generates magnetic force and magnetic field lines.
The electromagnetic spectrum
Insulators or non-conductors cannot allow electrons to flow through. The reason is that, the insulators’ electrons are positioned far apart and thus cannot allow electric currents to pass through them. They need more energy called the activation energy to excite them to jump to the conduction band in order to conduct electricity. That energy can be either in electromagnetic field or just heat. When more electromagnetic field as well as heat are applied in combination or separately to those insulators, their elastic limits could be surpassed and that will result in production of plasmas producing flames to cause fires. The semiconductors provide a good medium to conduct electricity when the four outer valence electrons are conducting as in intrinsic semiconductors or are doped as in extrinsic semiconductors to conduct. Some of these semiconductors used in the electronics industry are silicon, germanium, gallium and carbon.
Magma magnetic technologies
In free space, permittivity of electricity and permeability of magnetism as vacuum constants allow for a generation and passage of light and such similar radiations in the electromagnetic spectrum. The modern enumeration of the value 3×10 to the power of 8 (or 3×108) of the speed of light. This is the magnitude that radiations from electromagnetism self-propagate to travel through a vacuum. The magnetic current goes in and out while the electric goes back and for the at right angle or perpendicular to each other to provide the maximum electromagnetic force to travel.
Magnetic field through solenoids.
Electromagnetism is the basis to cause all the chemical reactions and chemical changes that take place on earth and everywhere in the universe. The reason as identified here is that all matter is made of electron as one of the basis sub-atomic particles and for it to carry a charge and generate magnetic effect as well will mean, it is the basic process that everything employs to effect changes on themselves. This includes all modern, technological innovations in power engineering and electronics such as digital technology to come about.
Magnetic field through solenoids. – Picture from khanacademy.com
Technology with applications of
electromagnetism
The electromagnetic property of matter in itself generates radiations and can also absorb radiations. That was a property first accounted for in classical physics and was later elevated to more or less a final state of a phenomenon known as a quantized particle displayed as having a specific wave property. So, in combination was a wave-particle duality property of a radiation as it is known, and light emitting the particle called the photon.
Photons observed as particles
A photon specifically is the amount of matter or particles having a dual property of a wave as well. The photon taken as a dividend and Planck’s constant becoming as a divisor gives a colour to specify the presence or absence of a particular natural element available in the universe. This is basically a measure of its spectrometry for the particular element’s supply in its abundance and or its scarcity or relatively its density. Thus, when the quantized photon is divided by a constant known as the Planck’s constant, it will yield the particular colour of a radiation in the electromagnetic spectrum.
Photons observed as particles. – Picture from photonics.com
Mie scattering – Radio wave quantized as photons
Here we have the technologically and scientifically advanced method to identify occurrences of substances on the planet earth as well as on the other planetary bodies. One can use this procedure to determine their distributions in space with mathematical methods as well.
With the availability of this knowledge, so much diverse applications are seen to take off in every direction to result in many useful products and innovations. Such applications are such as the electromagnetic induction whereby the principle is to induce current in the adjacent compete electric circuit. Such uses include electric motors, inductors, generators and transformers.
Electromagnetic waves are the next phenomenon whereby, the self-propagating electric and magnetic dipole moments can be used to pass messages in the form of waves through vacuum that do not require a medium to travel. We can use to our advantage, the radio waves and infrared waves to send and receive these signals for communication. These messages are essentially in the form of analogue as well as digital signals. Analogue waves as they are naturally inherent can be better presented in the digital format of discrete quantized signals that can contain analogue signals to very tiny micro and nano-levels of approximations that can tolerate very huge electromagnetic interferences (EMI) to send approximately error and distortion free messages to long distances. In comparison, if analogue signals are sent without such digitization process then, the message transmission and reception would be highly affected and error prone.
Latest electronic component
Other uses are found in electromagnetic radiations to determine the chemical content of highly suspicious substances that you are not aware of its content. So, what you can do is to use electromagnetic radiations to it to observe its level of absorption in the electromagnetic spectrum as well as its rate and type of electromagnetic emissions. With that instrumentation, you will know the nature of the substance in the analysis called the spectrometry as an area of study in electromagnetism.
Mass spectrometry – Assignment Point
Other uses in the electromagnetic field the ability of electrons in a substance such as a metal, plastic, wood to show electro-positive or electro-negative character. Thus, the south or north polarity of this substance with another substance with a different electromagnetic potential can attract if they are of different polarities. They will repel if they are of the same polarity. As given in the Law of Charges as Like poles repel and unlike poles attract, this property is used to design control systems as well as computerised automatic systems. It is based on the magnetised and demagnetised property of the substance used as an armature to provide this pivotal function in autonomous or controlled systems as well as in modern expert systems.
The Arriving Technologies in Electromagnetism
There are currently emerging applications in the field of electromagnetism that we are to expect as the technology ideas have surged and soared. Such applications include the emerging electromagnetic medicine such as the Current and Emerging Medical applications of Microwave and Radio Frequency Energy Treatment of Cancer according to Carl H. Sutton. One is in Electromagnetic Field Focusing (EFF) Probe; Applications in Aneurysm Treatment, Angioplasty and Brain Tumours Resection according to William S according to ME O’Connor, RHC, JC Monahan – 1990 – books.google.com.
Furthermore, other applications are found in the microelectronics industry. Such would include the “Graphene analogues as emerging materials for screening electromagnetic radiations. According to Arief S Biwas, S Bose in Nano-Structures and Nano-Objects, 2017- Elsevier, in both foam and paper towards enhancing EMI shielding for emerging applications…growing next-generation miniature electronics, communication and health care, electromagnetic (EM) shields…demonstrate the increasing trend in nanofabrication and application of graphene”.
My prayer for PNG today is; “The wilderness, will lead you, to your heart where I will speak, integrity and justice, with tenderness, you shall know…”.
Next week: Sciences of the Waves and Technology
- Michael John Uglo ia science textbook author and a lecturer in Avionics, Auto-piloting andAircraft Engineering.
Please send comments to: [email protected]
Photons observed as particles. – Picture from photonics.com