If I wave my hand fast enough can i generate an electromatic wave or field? why
or why not? how about light?

rsk-ga,

The short answer to your question is, "No." 

The waving motion of your hand does not contribute in any way to
generating electromagnetic waves. All animals, including humans, give
off subtle electrical fields, but these fields are generated whether
or not your hands are in motion.

Waving your hand, no matter how fast, also will not "generate" light.

The following "Science Trek" website gives basic accepted facts on
electromagnetic waves:

http://www.colorado.edu/physics/2000/waves_particles/

Some people, known as paranormal investigators, attempt to explain
unexplained phemnomena with things such as human-generated electrical
fields and the like, but these studies have not been scientifically
verified. If this is the type of subject matter you are interested in,
then visit this "Human Energy" site devoted to paranormal activity:

http://www.xilogic.com/~pradt/800x600/page%2020.html

As for the generation of light, the following link is to the Center
for Ultrafast Optical Science, and deals with all types of light
generation (none of which revolve around the waving of human body
parts):

http://www.eecs.umich.edu/CUOS/index.html?http://www.eecs.umich.edu/USL/highlights/whitelight.html

Google search strategy:

keywords, "electromagnetic waves" 
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=electromagnetic+waves
,

"human electrical fields"

://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=human+electrical+fields
,

"light generation" ://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=light+generation

Good luck in continuing your inquiries!

~omniscientbeing-ga

Thanks for providing so many links, but i think the answer is still in contention

To a first order, I'd agree that the answer is no.  However, there are
bunch of second order effects which would generate electromagnetic
particles/fields/waves.

The "no" answer comes from the fact that there is no direct
relationship between mechanical motion (waving your hand) and
electromagnetic waves (light and radio waves).

However, the "yes" answer comes from several other effects.

1. Heat produces infrared light.  As you wave your hand, it will get
warmer and emit more and higher frequency photons - which are
electromagnetic waves.  How fast can you wave your hand?

2. Accelerating and deaccelerating charged particles (electrons and
protons) create changing magnetic fields.  This is an electromagnetic
wave.  If you wave your hand, you are accelerating many protons and
electrons and producing a very weak change in the magnetic field and
thus you are producing a very weak electromagnetic wave.

I'm sure there are other ways too.

I was thinking more in the relm of thought experiment, not a person
actualy waving their hand. therfore you could theoretically wave it at
speeds aproching the speed of light (ignoring the tensile string). i
thought the answer would be yes as well, it would be nice if i could
find out how heat turns into ligh and other radiation.

sorry thats tensile strength

Ignoring practical limitiations and trying to keep things as simple as
possible, a hand waiving at or near the speed of light would/could
generate e-m particles, fields, and waves.
1) Assumming you are waiving your hand in a medium that produces
friction (ie. air) your hand would 'heat up' itself and the medium
around it.  The increase in energy level of the atoms in the hand/air
group would lead to state transitions of the electrons in the group,
the electrons would spontaneously 'fall' back to lower energy states,
in the process emitting photons at frequencies corresponding to the
difference in energy levels of the pre-post transition states divided
by Planck's constant.
2) The acceleration of individual charged particles in your hand by
the oscillatory motion would not produce a net e/m field, rather their
combined effects would completely cancel each other.  You could
however touch or come near a charged object (say grab a ballon someone
has rubbed against their head while your wearing rubber sneakers),
this would cause a small change in the distribution of surface
electrons accross your skin and your hand would then have a (small)
net charge and corresponding field would be produced by accelerating
that charge.

Their are many ways/levels of explananing how heat turns into
radiation, from the simple explanation in 1) above to crap that's well
beyond the knowledge my physics minor confered to me, but let me know
what exactly your interested in and I'll try and provide some insight.