electromagnetic waves

[lilposhgirl]

Describe the effects of absorbing electromagnetic waves:heating, ionisation and damage to cells and tissue.

This is in my syllibus for my gcse physics exam and ive look everywhere to find the answer but i cant!! can anyone help??

[spacechimp]

Don't you have a list about microwaves and x-rays and such, with their uses and effects?

[Peter Pedant]

you have the answers in the questions.

EM radiation sort of smacks into a molecule and makes it vibrate a bit faster. Heat is this vibration,and if they are vibrating faster then by definition they are hotter.

Ionization - EM radiation is of the right length and energy to knock off an electron in the outer shell. The result is a atom with a + charge and the electron sort of wanderrs around.

dmage to cells and tissue - by these two mechanisms the EM radiation damages DNA. There is a bit more to this try googling radiation damage cells

anyway this is a start

[spacechimp]

Yeah, I'm speaking carp. Ignore it.