- #1
- 3,802
- 95
So I've been told that electromagnetic waves oscillate like flicking a rope up and down or a ripple in a pond. In the first example, from a side view, the rope can be considered to be a line, or 1-dimensional. However, once the ropes starts oscillating to represent waves, width must also be taken into account to view the wave, so it becomes 2-D. Similarly for the pond, the surface of the water can be considered 2-D from a birds eye view, but to view the ripples, it takes the 3rd dimension of height. Following this pattern, if we were to view the light waves being emitted from a light bulb (3-D environment), we would need a 4th spatial dimension?
I haven't studied quantum theory or any other topics that relate to these ideas, but I'm curious as to whether electromagnetic waves physically oscillate in a way that we couldn't possibly perceive them (4-D) which just defies logic at this point. So what is actually going on here?
I haven't studied quantum theory or any other topics that relate to these ideas, but I'm curious as to whether electromagnetic waves physically oscillate in a way that we couldn't possibly perceive them (4-D) which just defies logic at this point. So what is actually going on here?