onnel, and as do the metal detectors and remote-controlled toys that are pervasive in contemporary society. Some members of the general public are concerned for public safety in relation to the electromagnetic effects of these devices. Most scientists, however, remain unconvinced that any danger exists.
Contemporary Applications in Communications
In 1865, Scottish physicist James Maxwell discovered the electromagnetic spectrum. "Encompassing nearly all the technologies imagined today, Maxwell's rainbow reaches from the extremely low frequencies (and gigantic wavelengths) used to communicate with submarines all the way through the frequencies used in radio, television and cellular phones, on up to the frequencies of infrared used in TV remotes and fiber optics, and beyond that to visible and ultraviolet light and x-rays. In a fabulous feat of unification, Maxwell reduced the entire spectrum to just four equations in vector calculus. He showed that all such radiations move at the speed of light--in other words, the wavelength times the
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