Question

How do electromagnetic waves transfer energy?

Answer 1

Hint: Electromagnetic waves are the waves which accommodate vibratory electrical and magnetic fields and like other fields these waves can also transfer energy from one place to another. These fields travel in space by transferring energy and do not need matter to transfer energy.

Complete solution:
The particles involved in the transfer of energy in an electromagnetic wave do not move with the energy but they move back and forth perpendicular to the wave that’s why energy can be transferred even though the average position of particles remains the same.

But, some waves have more energy and some with the less amount of energy, the reason behind this phenomena is that the energy depends on some factors like amplitude, wavelength and frequency. For electromagnetic wave speed in constant that is speed of light c so waves with the high frequency or we can say that with the shorter wavelength have more energy e.g. X-Rays.

Electromagnetic energy transferred by energy refers to electromagnetic radiation (EMR). EMR can travel through vacuum and don’t need any medium to propagate.

Objects can reflect or emit electromagnetic radiation and the sun is the major source of electromagnetic radiation on earth emitting all types of spectrum energy because the earth surface can reflect Electromagnetic radiation in various ways.

Note:
Moving along the spectrum from long wavelength to short wavelengths, energy of electromagnetic waves increases as the wavelength shortens. Energy is directly proportional to the frequency of the radiation or inversely proportional to the wavelength.
i.e. $E=h\upsilon $, here $E$(energy of electromagnetic wave), $h$(Planck’s constant=$6.626\times {{10}^{-34}}$joule –seconds) and $\upsilon $(Frequency).