+Electric Oscillations.+--If the position of the two rods is reversed,
then of course the direction of the field at a point between them is
reversed, and if this reversal is repeated rapidly, we shall have the
direction of the field alternating rapidly. If these alternations
become sufficiently rapid they are conveyed outwards in much the same
way as the oscillations of position are conveyed in an ordinary ripple.
Thus suppose the two rods are suddenly placed in the position in the
diagram. The field is not established instantaneously, the lines of
force taking a short time to establish themselves in their ultimate
positions. During this time the lines of force will be travelling
outwards to A in the direction of the dotted arrow. {20} Before they
reach A let us suppose that the position of the rods is reversed. Then
the direction of the lines is reversed and these reversed lines will
travel outwards towards A, following in the track of the original
lines. Thus a continuous procession of lines of force, first in one
direction and then in the opposite direction, will be moving out
perpendicular to themselves in the direction of the dotted arrow.
This constitutes an electric wave.
+Magnetic Oscillation, Lines of Force, and Field+.--Almost exactly the
same kind of description applies to a magnetic wave. The space near to
the North and South poles of a magnet is modified in somewhat the same
way as that between the electrified rods, and the magnetic lines of
force are the lines along which a small North magnetic pole would move.
We may imagine a rapid alternation of the magnetic field by the rapid
reversal of the positions of the North and South poles, and we may
imagine the transmission of the alternations by means of the procession
of magnetic lines of force.
+Changes in Magnetic Field.+--But experiment shows that whenever the
magnetic field at any place is changing an electric field is produced
during the alteration, and _vice-versa_. Electric and magnetic waves
must therefore always accompany one another, and the two sets of waves
together constitute electro-magnetic waves.
These are the waves which a huge amount of experimental evidence leads
us to believe constitute heat, light, the electric waves used in
wireless telegraphy, {21} and the invisible ultraviolet waves which are
so active in inducing chemical action.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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