What would the properties of an infinitely long wavelength of light be? And what about a wavelength of light that is infinitely short? What would that look like?

edit: light as in electromagnetic waves, not visible light. Sorry if it was not very clear

  • Saleh@feddit.org
    83·
    4 days ago

    I think your terminology is a bit mixed up. Light is a subset of the electromagnetic spectrum that we can see, plus infrared and UV often also being referred to as “light”.

    As for the properties, they don’t fundamentally differ across the spectrum. The longer the wavelength, the less energy and the shorter the wavelength, the more energy.

    As for the shortest theoretically possible wavelength, we are probably in the area of a Planck length

    The Planck length is about 10-20 times the diameter of a proton.

    • MartianSands@sh.itjust.works
      10·
      4 days ago

      Light is a subset of the electromagnetic spectrum

      No, it’s not. In physics, we call the entire spectrum “light”, because it’s all fundamentally the same thing.

      We can talk about “visible light”, but that’s a subset of light in general. Microwaves, radio waves, x-rays, gamma radiation, and any other section of the spectrum you can think of are all light

      • Saleh@feddit.org
        51·
        4 days ago

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light

        Light, visible light, or visible radiation is electromagnetic radiation that can be perceived by the human eye.[1] Visible light spans the visible spectrum and is usually defined as having wavelengths in the range of 400–700 nanometres (nm), corresponding to frequencies of 750–420 terahertz. The visible band sits adjacent to the infrared (with longer wavelengths and lower frequencies) and the ultraviolet (with shorter wavelengths and higher frequencies), called collectively optical radiation.[2][3]

        In physics, the term “light” may refer more broadly to electromagnetic radiation of any wavelength, whether visible or not.[4][5] In this sense, gamma rays, X-rays, microwaves and radio waves are also light. The primary properties of light are intensity, propagation direction, frequency or wavelength spectrum, and polarization. Its speed in vacuum, 299792458 m/s, is one of the fundamental constants of nature.

        I didn’t know that some physicists choose such confusing terminology. Electromagnetic radiation is the more clear term and i have learned it as such in school, e.g. light being a part of the electromagnetic spectrum and generally speaking of electromagnetic radiation rather than light.

        • LastYearsIrritant@sopuli.xyzEnglish
          5·
          4 days ago

          Cause things get named CENTURIES before we understand them, and as we learn more, sometimes it makes sense to rename them, sometimes it is so engrained in daily life nobody would use the new names.