Name:____________
Hour:_____________
Date:_____________
Electromagnetic Spectrum WebQuest
http://imagers.gsfc.nasa.gov/ems/waves.html
What are waves?
1. How are electromagnetic waves different from sound waves?
What are electromagnetic waves?
2. Electromagnetic waves are formed when an _______________________ field couples with a
_____________________ field. Both of the fields are
________________ to each other and the direction
of the wave.
Electromagnetic waves have different wavelengths.
3. Define wavelength:
4. List the three ways that waves can be mathematically related:
5. List the electromagnetic waves in order, starting with the waves with the longest wavelength and going to the
shortest wavelength:
RADIO WAVES
6. Radio waves range in length from _________________ to ________________.
7. List four uses of radio waves.
8. How do we “see” using radio waves? Compare the size of a radio telescope to a
regular telescope.
9. What do radio waves show us? (List what astronomers can learn about the Universe from radio waves)
MICROWAVES
10. Microwaves range in length from ____________________ to _____________________.
11. List four uses of microwaves:
12. How do we “see” using microwaves? RADAR is an acronym for __________________________________.
13. In the 1960’s, a strange background noise was discovered coming from every direction. This cosmic
background radiation, which fills the entire _________________________________, and is believed to be a
clue to it’s beginning. This is know as the _______________________________________________.
INFRARED
14. Infrared waves range in length from ______________________ to ____________________.
15. List four uses/sources of infrared waves:
16. How can we “see” using infrared? The warmer the object, the more _____________________ in emits.
17. How does the temperature of the man’s glasses compare to the temperature of the man’s hand?
18. What is the coldest part of the cat’s body?_____________________________
19. How does a snake detect warm blooded animals?___________________________
20. What does infrared show us? Infrared is great to study cloud structure. Darker clouds are
______________________ while lighter clouds are ___________________________.
VISIBLE LIGHT WAVES
21. Visible light waves range in length from ______________________ to ________________.
22. When white light (visible light) shines through a prism, white light is broken into
_________________________________________________________________________________________,
which are colors of the visible light spectrum.
23. The color of an object that we see is the color of light ___________________. All other colors are
______________________.
24. Referring to the pictures, the true color of Uranus is ______________________________.
25. What does visible light show us? We need different instruments to study the Earth and Universe because
__________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________.
ULTRAVIOLET WAVES
26. Ultraviolet waves range in length from _____________________ to __________________.
27. List the three regions of ultraviolet light:
28. Which of the sun’s waves are responsible for sunburns?_________________________________
29. Most of the sun’s waves are blocked by ___________________ gas in the atmosphere.
30. How do we “see” using ultraviolet light? The _______________________ telescope uses ultraviolet light
to observe stars and galaxies.
31. What does ultraviolet light show us? Bands of UV emission reflected off the moon are the result of
______________________________, which is caused by charged particles given off by the sun.
X-RAYS
32. X-rays range in length from _________________________ to ________________________.
33. X-ray light tends to act more like a _____________________________ than a wave.
34. X-rays were accidentally discovered by Wilhelm Roentegen. The X-ray of his wife’s hand shows
_______________________________________ and her _________________________________.
35. How do we “see” using X-ray light? Why do bones and teeth absorb more X-rays than skin?
36. what does X-ray light show us? List objects that can be found in space by the X-rays that they emit.
GAMMA-RAYS
37. Gamma-rays range from ____________________________ to ________________________.
38. Name two ways gamma waves are generated:
39. Even though gamma-rays kill living cells, an advantage in medicine is
________________________________________________________________________________________.
40. How do we “see” using gamma-ray light? Gamma rays cannot be captured and reflected in
______________________________, because the high energy photons would pass right through such a device.
41. What do gamma-rays show us? By solving the mystery of gamma-ray bursts, scientists hope to gain
further knowledge of
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
GOING FURTHER (Challenge Only)
A. Why are only diesel cars used around radio telescopes?
B. Define angstrom.
C. Citizens in German-speaking countries refer to X-rays as ___________________________________.
Why?