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Radio Waves And The Radio

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The science of radios has been around for a long time, with many scientists making contributions. It all started in 1860 James Maxwell predicted the existence of radio waves. In 1886, Heinrich Hertz proved that radio waves could be manipulated to form sound. Radio waves were first put to work to make telegraphs, but then Lee DeForest figured out how to amplify waves to make them audible over long distances, effectively inventing the first radio. By 1915, humans had perfected AM radio broadcasting and were able to transmit across oceans for the first time. However, the FM radio was yet to be conceived and it took until 1933 until Edwin Armstrong learned how to improve audio signal and broadcasting range, which led to FM radio. The radio …show more content…

In a real radio station, the radio will have an assigned frequency so no two stations will be broadcasting over each other. When a radio is tuned to a number, it is really being tuned to that number’s frequency. Electromagnetic waves are very important to radios because they provide a medium at which to output a sound. Because of their properties of magnetism and electricity, they are able to broadcast a sound at a distance of which no other medium can. Radios are truly complicated devices, but they can be simplified by breaking them down into important parts, as the tester will do in this experiment. One important part is the transformer. A transformer, in this case, will transfer the output from the headphone jack into a radio signal. However, transformers are not only used on radios, but are essential in almost any device involving sound. Once the transformer sends out the radio signal, it is sent to the crystal oscillator which is another important part. The oscillator makes an electromagnetic frequency by vibrating a piece of crystal. Once it is modified by the oscillator, the signal is complete and ready to be broadcasted. However, none of this could have happened without the source of power, which in this case is either 4 AA batteries or a 9V radio battery. The type of battery is the deciding factor in this experiment, and also one of the key components in a

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