A Frequently Asked Question

Everyone always wonders what bioelectromagnetism is when they ask me about my interests. First of all, let's start with what electromagnetic waves are. Light, radio and x-rays are all examples of electromagnetic waves. They are a special type of transverse wave meaning that the energy from the oscillations moves perpendicular and away from the vibrating source. The electromagnetic waves consist of two transverse waves, one component of the wave being a vibrating electric field while the other is a corresponding magnetic field.

Although all electromagnetic waves (hereto referred to as EM waves) travel at the speed of light, the particular type of EM wave can be defined by it's frequency or wavelength. EM waves differ from other transverse waves in that they do not need a medium such as air, water or steel to travel through. Radio, gamma and visible light waves have no problem traveling through the emptiness of space.

EM waves are created by moving charges in atoms, which create an electric field that in turn creates a corresponding magnetic field. The energy from the moving electrons radiates into the area around the moving charge.

The EM spectrum ranges from low(radio waves)frequency to high(gamma rays) frequencies.

Maxwell in 1861 demonstrated the relationship between vibrating electric and magnetic fields. He described the nature of EM fields and waves through four equations known as "Maxwell Equations), (hard for me to memorize and I had help in learning them from Lynda Williams who writes science songs for women and their daughters....my favorite being the Quark Sing-a-long and Hi Tech Girl sung to Mondonna's "Material Girl").

Anyway....back to business....Hertz proved that the EM waves existed.

Now, thanks to weird science, after being in an EM field, I can do all kinds of neat and interesting things....definitely not normal.....but comfortable.

To end this blog, here is a sample of Lynda Williams song "Quark Sing-a-long" copyright 1999 written for Jefferson National Lab for Bring Our Daughters to Work Day. (My favorite)

Up, Down, Charm, Strange, Top and Bottom!
The world is made up of quarks and leptons!
Up, Down, Charm, Strange, Top and Bottom!
Yum, Yum!

Quarks come in six flavors
They live in families of two
Up Down, Charm Strange, Top and Bottom
They come in anti-flavors too!

Each family has a generation
between which is a mass gap
The up quark is the lightest and the top quark
is the most fat

The second and third generations
do not live for very long
That's why everything in the Universe
is made up of Ups and Downs

Quarks carry a color charge
They come in red, green and blue
You'll never see a quark all by itself
cuz they stick together with a strong force glue

Quarks carry electric charge
A fraction of electricity
Quarks combine together so the total charge
is a multiple of unity

An up, up down makes a proton for a total charge of plus one.
A down, up, down makes a DUD neutron

Physics is so much Yum Yum Phun.

So if you hear my daughter singing in physics class, it is because that is the only way she can remember everything she needs to know.........and I will be dancing and singing to physics whenever I need to remember how something works! We are both dyslexic, so this works for us! A great big huge thanks to Lynda Williams, PhD. I had tears in my eyes when I first heard this song...because now I could learn without having to memorize text.