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
A wave with an infinitely long period isn’t really recognizable as a wave. It’d just be interpreted as a flat line anywhere in the universe. And as mentioned, the energy of light is tied to its frequency:
E = hf. (Or with hbar • omega, but that’s just multiplied with and divided by 2π, so, the same thing.)So an infinitely long wave would have f=0 and thus no energy.
The highest frequency you’d get would be 1/planck-time, so the energy would be the Planck constant divided by Planck time, which would be roughly 12.3 GJ. That’s a lot of energy for just one photon, but if it’s just the one, likely not world-ending.
I really love when physic estimates end with “probably not world ending”
Now do the shortest possible wavelength. World-ending yes or no?
If I’m not mistaken, their last paragraph describes this to contrast the answer above about the longest (I.e. lowest) frequency.