wave spectrum

[stuw]

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This may be a silly question, but I thought I might as well get some help from yall. So i realized I confuse myself often about the freq/wavelength relationship regarding the light spectrum. Is it that increasing frequency normally correlates with decreasing energy of a wave? I always assumed that the lower the wavelength, the greater the energy.


edit*: also since we're talking about waves here...could someone explain why pressure waves are longitudinal?
Any helpful tips and mnemonics are also welcome 🙂

 

[scrub2scrubs]

So we know that the velocity of electromagnetic waves is 3 x 10^8 m/s, this figure stays constant throughout the electromagnetic spectrum.
Now in terms of energy, we know that ultraviolet light has more energy than visible light and UV light is at a lower wavelength. Just from that information we know that it must have a larger frequency in order to keep the same velocity (v=wavelength*frequency). Also since E=hf, the waves with higher frequency will have a larger energy.

 

[stuw]

^that was very helpful. Thank you 🙂