radio wave: Facts & Related Content
Did You Know?
- The Very Large Array (VLA) is a radio telescope in the U.S. state of New Mexico, and is comprised of 27 antennas arranged in a Y-shape stretching approximately 22.4 mi (36 km) wide, 1.5 times the width of Washington, D.C., United States.
- A radio works by converting a specific wavelength (which can be adjusted by the user by changing the station) into vibrations, generating sound from the speakers.
- If an object is not a receiver for radio waves, any approaching wave will simply bounce off that object and travel away.
- Radio waves have the longest wavelengths out of all known waves in the electromagnetic spectrum, and can range from the length of a football to more than the diameter of Earth.
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whistlercarrier wavereflected wave propagationground wavemultipath interferencenoise stormsurface wave propagationatmospheric wave propagationdecametre radiationbeam divergence losslightsoundX-raywavegravitational wavegamma rayultraviolet radiationseismic wavelongitudinal wavestanding wave
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Key People

Vitaly Ginzburg
Russian physicist

Sir Oliver Joseph Lodge
British physicist

Heinrich Hertz
German physicist

George Francis FitzGerald
Irish physicist
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