| The Science For the most part, you will only need to use these charts for reference, not for scientific scrutiny. In the electromagnetic spectrum, there are a few things that are noted: 1. Radiation type. 2. The length of a wave (a single up/down cycle), which is measured in meters (m). 3. Frequency. 4. The number of times a wave will cycle per second, which is measured in Hz (1 Hz is 1 cycle per second). Radiation type Yes, radiation. From the Latin word for "glittering", radiation is the word meaning "giving off" or creating energy in the form of rays or waves. These electromagnetic energy "types," Radio, Microwave, Infrared, Visible, Ultraviolet, X-ray, and Gamma, are based on how their energy waves react with matter and other types of energy. All energy is the same stuff (pretty much) but they do interact differently. The radiation types overlap each other a bit, meaning high frequency radio will overlap with low freq microwave, etc. Each wave, one up/down cycle, has a length measured in meters, or how far one wave will travel before it completes one cycle. For example, medium- frequency radio waves have a length of 10sup3, which is 10x10x10 meters, or approximately 1000 meters (or 1 Km) long for one cycle. But look at visible light, the radiation wave that we can detect: .5x10sup-6 m. translates to .0000005 meters long. The numbers are getting small. Normally this wavelength is measured in nm, or nanometers (a billionth of a meter). Visible light wavelengths sit at about 380nm to 700 nm on the scale. You may need to get out a calculator when you decide to buy an EMF detector to "translate" where on the EM spectrum your detector can sense. Frequency The longer the wave (length), lower the frequency. Frequency is sometimes referred to as oscillation. Very Low Frequency Radio waves (about 100 km (kilometers) in length) sit at a frequency of about 3000 Hz, or 3 MHz (megahertz). This means that this radio wave travels about 109 feet before it completes one full wave cycle. Wow! Often, radiation is broken down into "groups" or class by frequency range. It is not uncommon for electronic devices to show detection range as one of these classes. (Remember, as frequency gets larger, wave length gets smaller) You can use this chart for figuring out what all of those GHz and nm's mean. Sorry to dump a whole lot on you at once, but as I said before, manufacturers aren't kind or consistent on how they present data on their EMF device. All multiples are integer powers of ten. For example, kilo- denotes a multiple of a thousand and milli- denotes a multiple of a thousandth; hence there are one thousand millimeters to the meter and one thousand meters to the kilometer. Ok now that is out there, let’s see an example: Example 1: Let’s say you have an ELF (Extremely Low Frequency) meter. From the Class chart above, you can see that ELF is waaayyyy at the low end of the electromagnetic spectrum. The ELF class is between 3-30 Hz (Hertz), and the wavelength is between 10-100 Mm (mega meters). This may not seem to matter, but now you know that your detector WILL NOT pick up magnetism, electricity, microwave, infrared, or any other radio wavelengths above the ELF (or 30 Hz range). Example 2 (More common) Your detector specifications say that it detects RF from 3 Hz - 300 kHz. First, RF stands for "Radio Frequency." Look at the Frequency chart. 3 Hz is the "bottom" of the ELF group, and 300 kHz is the "top" of the LF group (Low Frequency). This detector has a much wider detection range than the meter in the first example. To tie this information back into wavelength in the EM spectrum, we will re-do these examples with wavelength, which is often included with Frequency when you are looking at meter specifications. Some manufacturers don't include Frequency, and only include wavelength (such as with cameras). Example 1 Redo The specifications say that the meter is a RF detector, sensitive to wavelengths from 10-100 Mm. First, RF still stands for "Radio Frequency." Mm isn't millimeters, its Mega meters, which is (from the units of measure chart) a whole lot of zeros. But look at your Class spectrum chart. "10-100 Mm" is the range of the ELF class of the radio waves. So you know that this detector is a standard ELF detector, and will not pick up magnetism, electricity, short wave radio, microwave, etc. Example 2 Redo: Your meter detects RF between 1-100 mm. What? If you look at the Frequency class chart, there isn't a 1-100 mm group. But if you do your conversion of units, you can see that 100 mm equals 1 dm. So, your Radio frequency detector picks up on the EHF/SHF groups, which turn out to be...Microwave bands. Hmmm, this detector will most certainly pick up "leaky" electrical equipment, possibly microwave radar. But it won't pick up lower wave radio at all, nor magnetism, electricity, etc. Just as an add-on, here is the expanded visible light spectrum, measured in nm (nanometers). This information can also be useful to determine how "good" your camera is. In general, the greater the range of your camera's sensor, the better pictures you can capture. Umm, ok? Science lesson over; too much information, maybe. But it really can help, I swear. |

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| Posted January 21, 2010 |
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