Question

The speed of light is about 3.00 × 10 meters per second. What is the frequency of green light that has a wavelength about 500 nanometers? (1 nm = 10 m)

Answer 1

Answer:

The frequency of the green light is $6x10^{14}Hz$

Explanation:

The visible region is part of the electromagnetic spectrum, any radiation of that electromagnetic spectrum has a speed of $3.00x10^{8}m/s$ in the vacuum.

Green light is part of the visible region. Therefore, the frequency can be determined by the following equation:

$c = \lambda \cdot \nu$  (1)

Where c is the speed of light, $\lambda$ is the wavelength and $\nu$ is the frequency.  

Notice that since it is electromagnetic radiation, equation 1 can be used. Remember that light propagates in the form of an electromagnetic wave (that is a magnetic field perpendicular to an electric field).

Then, $\nu$ can be isolated from equation 1

$\nu = \frac{c}{\lambda}$  (2)

Notice that it is necessary to express the wavelength in units of meters.  

$\lambda = 500nm . \frac{1m}{1x10^{9}nm}$ ⇒ $5x10^{-7}m$

$\nu = \frac{3.00x10^{8}m/s}{5x10^{-7}m}$

$\nu = 6x10^{14}s^{-1}$  

$\nu = 6x10^{14}Hz$  

Hence, the frequency of the green light is $6x10^{14}Hz$