Radio waves are used a lot throughout everyday life. Whenever you are listening to AM or FM radio, radio waves are being used. Radio waves are very important because they are used a lot for our communication. Radio waves are a type of electromagnetic radiation. Also a radio wave has a much longer wavelength than does visible light. People listen to the radio each and every day, if you want the best sound quality you may want to listen to FM. If you want to listen to news or weather from a city further away you may want to try AM. The differences between FM and AM radio waves help explain these characteristics and are explained below.
FM stations sound better than AM stations. The advantage of FM radio stations is that it uses higher frequency with a larger range than AM. The frequency of FM radio waves goes from 88MHz to 108MHz for a total range of 20MHz. Whereas AM radio wave only range from 535 kHz to 1605kHz with a total range of 1070 kHz. The larger range for FM stations allows each station to have 150kHz versus only 10kHz for AM. Sound, especially music, sounds better in stereo and the larger bandwidth allows FM stations to broadcast more clearly and in stereo. Furthermore, AM radio waves are very similar to radio waves that occur from natural sources, like the sun, and are subject to higher levels of interference that can disrupt sound quality of AM station. The advantage of AM stations is that their large waves can travel further. The reason larger waves travel further is that they can pass through physical objects like hills, walls, and trees. The smaller FM waves do not travel as well through obstructions. Also radio waves work by bouncing back and fourth off of the earth’s surface and ionosphere, larger waves travel further in this way.
Radio waves are used very frequently throughout our life. Beyond AM and FM radio waves, there are many other ranges of radio waves used for various purposes. The characteristics of radio waves determine whether they are best suited for listening to music or having a simple conversation on a CB radio. Radio waves are very important because they are heavily relied on for communication and broadcasting information.
Sites Used:
http://illumin.usc.edu/article.php?articleID=85&page=4
http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/physical_science/magnetism/em_radio_waves.html
http://www.nrao.edu/index.php/learn/radioastronomy/radiowaves
