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Questions tagged [wavelength]

The wavelength of a sinusoidal wave is the spatial period of the wave—the distance over which the wave's shape repeats, and the inverse of the spatial frequency or wavenumber. Determined by considering the distance between consecutive corresponding points of the same phase, such as crests. Use for wavenumber, wavelength, frequency.

31 votes
6 answers
9k views

How can a red light photon be different from a blue light photon?

How can photons have different energies if they have the same rest mass (zero) and same speed (speed of light)?
Joshiepillow's user avatar
82 votes
11 answers
122k views

What determines color -- wavelength or frequency?

What determines the color of light -- is it the wavelength of the light or the frequency? (i.e. If you put light through a medium other than air, in order to keep its color the same, which one would ...
user541686's user avatar
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32 votes
4 answers
5k views

$\lambda=\frac{2h}{p}$ instead of $\lambda=\frac{h}{p}$?

I am studying quantum physics and there is something I don't understand: I know that for any particle $E=hf$ (Einstein relation) and $v=\lambda f$ ($v$ is the speed of the particle). I also know ...
snickers's user avatar
  • 517
17 votes
1 answer
35k views

Planck's Law in terms of wavelength

I am drawing a blank when it comes to equation transformation. Wikipedia gives two equations for the spectral radiance of black body: First as a function of frequency $\nu$: $$I(\nu, T) = \frac{2 h \...
Gleno's user avatar
  • 281
41 votes
4 answers
191k views

Why does wavelength change as light enters a different medium?

When light waves enter a medium of higher refractive index than the previous, why is it that: Its wavelength decreases? The frequency of it has to stay the same?
ODP's user avatar
  • 4,607
40 votes
4 answers
13k views

Is there an infinite amount of wavelengths of light? Is the EM spectrum continuous?

The electromagnetic spectrum is a continuum of wavelengths of light, and we have labels for some ranges of these and numerical measurements for many. Question: Is the EM spectrum continuous such that ...
toothandsticks's user avatar
17 votes
2 answers
10k views

What is Gray, from a physics POV?

Quora explains how white and black colors fit into the spectrum of visible light. It explains that white is all colors together while black is the lack of color. So, where is Gray? Gray is the mix of ...
PhyEnthusiast's user avatar
28 votes
7 answers
8k views

The strange thing about the maximum in Planck's law

I read that it makes a difference whether you calculate $\frac{dE(\lambda) }{d \lambda}=0$ or $\frac{dE(\omega)}{d \omega}=0$ in the sense that the maximum energy density with respect to the ...
Xin Wang's user avatar
  • 1,880
22 votes
3 answers
13k views

What is the minimum wavelength of electromagnetic radiation?

As a first approximation, I don't see how a wavelength of less than 2 Planck distances could exist. The question is: Are there any other limits that would come into play before that? For example: ...
BCS's user avatar
  • 1,269
54 votes
5 answers
9k views

Are there any theoretical limits on the energy of a photon?

Is there any lower or upper limit on the energy of a photon? i.e. does the mathematical framework we currently use to study photons blow up when a photon surpasses a certain upper limit of energy? (or ...
Hritik Narayan's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
2k views

Deriving relativistic Doppler shift in terms of wavelength? [closed]

Consider a star moving with velocity $v$ at an angle $\theta$ with respect to its line of sight to Earth. Show that the relativistic Doppler shift is $$\lambda_{obs} = \frac{1 - \frac{v}{c} cos(\theta)...
Shilpa Kancharla's user avatar
27 votes
9 answers
8k views

What determines whether colors you can't see are visible or not?

So, when someone is red-green colorblind, the colors appear the same to them, like this: Source: https://iristech.co/what-do-colorblind-people-see/ And if you're totally colorblind, then things ...
revereche's user avatar
  • 397
22 votes
5 answers
12k views

Why does electron orbital circumference have to be in multiples of de Broglie wavelengths?

Electron orbit circumferences have to be in multiples of its de Broglie wavelength, but what do those 2 have in common?
radial9174's user avatar
14 votes
6 answers
20k views

Why does the frequency of a wave remain constant?

They say the frequency of a wave is its fundamental character, thus remain constant throughout its propagation regardless the medium through which it travels. Could anyone explain why frequency of ...
Lamichhane88's user avatar
68 votes
12 answers
34k views

Is it possible that there is a color our human eye can't see?

Is it possible that there's a color that our eye couldn't see? Like all of us are color blind to it. If there is, is it possible to detect/identify it?
MegaNairda's user avatar

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