Question

What is the frequency of green light that has a wavelength of 543 nm? (c = 3.00 x 10⁸ m/s)

Answer 1

Answer:

ν =  5.53 x 10⁶ Hz

Explanation:

The frequency of a radiation, ν ,is inversely  propotional  to its wavelength, and is given  by:

ν =  c/λ  where

ν = frequency

c: speed of light, 3 x 10⁸ m/s

λ: wavelength in m

Think of frequency as the number of waves per second.

We can directly compute the answer by first converting the wavelength to m for unit consistency and then plugging the values.

1 m = 10⁹ nm

543 nm x ( 1 m /  10⁹ nm ) = 5.43 x 10⁻⁷ m

ν =  c/λ  = 3 x 10⁸ m/s / 5.43 x 10⁻⁷ m = 5.53x 10¹⁴ s⁻¹

In the metric system the unit s⁻¹ is called Hertz.

ν = 5.53 x 10¹⁴  Hz