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Cell Phone Radiation
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Source of Radiation
When talking on a cell phone, a transmitter takes the sound of your
voice and encodes it onto a continuous sine wave . A sine wave is
just a type of continuously varying wave that radiates out from the antenna
and fluctuates evenly through space. Sine waves are measured in terms of
frequency, which is the number of times a wave oscillates up and down
per second. Once the encoded sound has been placed on the sine wave, the
transmitter sends the signal to the antenna, which then sends the signal
out. |
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Cell phones have low-power
transmitters in them. Most car phones have a transmitter power of 3 watts. A
handheld cell phone operates on about 0.75 to 1 watt of power. The
position of a transmitter inside a phone varies depending on the
manufacturer, but it is usually in close proximity to the phone's antenna.
The radio waves that send the encoded signal are made up of
electromagnetic radiation propagated by the antenna. The function of an
antenna in any radio transmitter is to launch the radio waves into space; in
the case of cell phones, these waves are picked up by a receiver in
the cell-phone tower.
Electromagnetic radiation is made up of waves of electric and magnetic
energy moving at the speed of light, according to the
Federal Communications Commission (FCC). All electromagnetic energy
falls somewhere on the electromagnetic spectrum, which ranges from
extremely low frequency (ELF) radiation to X-rays and gamma rays. Later,
you will learn how these levels of radiation affect biological tissue.
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For more information regarding to cell phone radiation, please
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Content from
www.howstuffworks.com/index.htm (a great web
site to visit)
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