ABSTRACT
It is important to realize that acoustical energy and electromagnetic energy are two fundamentally different phenomena with some very dissimilar properties and characteristics. Perhaps most obvious is the fact that sound travels rather slowly as a longitudinal pressure wave, whereas radio and optical energy propagate as electromagnetic waves at the speed of light. Additionally, sound must be conducted through some type of medium, whereas none is required for optical or RF energy, as evidenced by their effective transmission through the vacuum of space. In fact, for electromagnetic radiation, the earth’s atmosphere is not an enabling mechanism at all but rather an impediment to propagation.
