Radiant energy is the sustained electromagnetic energy received from a source, which can be transformed into other usable forms of energy. The source, transmission, and target of radiant energy can be illustrated in natural systems, such as the sun’s photons striking tree leaves. Humans have invented technologies to identify and exploit low to high-energy frequencies, and artificial power plants capture radiant energy for various uses. The photoelectric effect, discovered by Albert Einstein, led to the creation of photovoltaics.
The word “radiant” comes from the word “beam,” which is thought to be a packet of energy, flowing in rectilinear motion from a source to a target. The term “radiant power” refers to the average, sustained, electromagnetic (EM) energy received from a source, natural or man-made, over time. The longer the duration of exposure to radiation, or radiant energy, the more radiant power is produced. Radiant energy can only be used if its source, mode of transmission and target, usually a detector or a power station, are stable and sustainable over a specified period of time.
The three parts of radiant energy distribution—the source, the transmission, and the target—can be illustrated in a natural system. For example, the radiant power of the sun’s photons is transmitted to the Earth and can strike natural targets such as tree leaves. The process of photosynthesis begins, carbon dioxide is converted into glucose and the tree develops a store of chemical energy.
Incoming EM energy can also be transformed into other forms of usable energy at the target. Municipalities, homes and businesses use processes to harness energy from various sources of radiant energy. This is mostly done to produce electricity.
The sun is the closest source of EM radiation to the Earth, distributing a wide range of energy packets, called quanta, that oscillate at various frequencies. The faster the packets swing, the greater the amount of radiant power they transmit. Atomic decay, due to the weak nuclear force, and violent atomic interactions in the evolution of stars produce the full spectrum of radiative power. The detectors used by astronomers to view the universe use the entire EM frequency spectrum, but humans, who can naturally detect radiation only in the light spectrum, have invented technologies to identify and exploit low-energy radio wave frequencies , microwaves and infrared waves to high-energy X-rays.
Because matter arrives in smaller, more energetic packets, it is transmitted into the intervening space in such a way that if one tried to find its position, one could only observe it statistically. According to experiments, at about the size of a hydrogen atom, the energy packets become non-local. That is, their locations can only be determined as statistical distributions, the probability that the energy package will be sampled at a specific location or time.
Humans create artificial power plants to capture radiant energy to use in a variety of ways. Energy from the sun heats a black body, emitting infrared waves, agitating and heating water molecules for use in the home and industry. When light waves are set in phase, they work like lasers to concentrate power on small surface areas.
Albert Einstein won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921 for describing the photoelectric effect that occurs when light strikes conducting wires, causing electrons to flow through metal; photovoltaics was born from this discovery. Microwaves heat food through the interaction of infrared radiant waves with food molecules. Calculating the amount of solar insolation over time gives climatologists an idea of the radiant power available to force the Earth to warm and cool.
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