The Sun, a gaseous flaming ball 93 million miles away, transmits energy to us in the form of light and heat. Without it, we’d be nowhere. But what exactly are light and heat, and what can they do?
Light reaches us as waves of electric and magnetic fields. That’s why the scientific term for light waves is electromagnetic radiation; radiation is a way of transferring energy from one place to another. In addition to the light we see, the spectrum (or range) of electromagnetic radiation includes the following: infrared, ultraviolet, microwaves, radio waves, and X-rays. These forms of electromagnetic radiation help us get many jobs done.
