Radio Waves vs. Radiation

The one thing that magnetic connection, radio waves, and radiation have in common is the photon.

This makes it sometimes difficult to distinguish between the three fenomena. Other times it is easy to forget that they are in fact related.

The reason for this is that the photon has two independent properties that can appear individually or in combination.

1. Magnetic connection is entirely dependent on the spin of the photon
2. Radio waves depend on spin and energy
3. Radiation is entirely dependent on energy.

Radio waves have something in common with both magnetic connection and radiation.

As pure radiation, radio wave photons have too little energy to be useful. They need to be polarized in order to be easily detectable.

Antennas designed to detect radio waves reveal the magnetic nature of such photons. Radio wave antennas are sticks of metal that can pick up minuscule magnetic signals.

Radiation such as gamma-rays are detected in a completely different manner. The energy of such photons are detected through direct impact. No magnetic detection is required.

Visible light is detected in the same manner.

It is only when photons have very little energy that they need to be polarized in order to be detected. Such photons are what we call radio waves.

Polarized photons used in radio transmission