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Well, I would have called infrared microwaves because the wavelengths are in micrometers, but I believe that ship sailed over a century ago. (P.S. they're using
by whatshisface 3y ago
Well, I would have called infrared microwaves because the wavelengths are in micrometers, but I believe that ship sailed over a century ago. (P.S. they're using them to cause chemical reactions, not ionize atoms or scatter off electrons, which is definitely more of a UV thing than an X-ray thing.)
- marcosdumay 3y ago> they're using them to cause chemical reactions, not ionize atoms or scatter off electrons Those three are approximately the same thing. The distinguishing characteristic of X-rays is that they remove electrons from other layers than the last one. And the most relevant feature of UV is that it ionizes atoms. (Even though what distinguishes it is that we can't see it.) For completeness, the thing that differentiates IR from microwaves is that IR creates molecular compression while microwaves can only make matter vibrate. The IR name is about 3 centuries old, and it's because it often comes from light sources. While microwaves are the smaller version of the short waves; from the short, medium, and long waves used on radio. Anyway, the dividing between those is always fuzzy.