Question

Give a complete description of these three categories of energy relative to each other in terms of their wavelengths and energy: infrared, visible light, and ultraviolet.

Answer 1

To answer this energy we need to be familiar with two things:
*Planck's relation for the energy of photons.
*The electromagnetic spectum.

Planck's relation say that the energy is proportional to the frequency, mathematically;
\[E=hf\]
Here are E the energy, f the frequency and h the proportional constant, also called Planck's constant.
We know form from simple wave theory that the frequency is proportional to the reciprocal wavelength, with the velocity c (the speed of light) as proportional constant as we work with light. Mathematically we say:
\[f=\frac{ 1 }{ \lambda }c\]
Insert this expression into Planck's relation and we get:
\[E=\frac{ hc }{ \lambda }\]
We know from common algebra that when a denominator in a fraction, get high the fraction is getting low and vice versa.
We can therefor conclude the following:
* Light with a high wavelength or low frequency have a low energy.
* Light with a low wavelength or high frequency have a high energy.

For us to be able to tell where the infrared, ultraviolet waves and visible light is found in all this we need to use the electromagnetic spectrum, which is linked below:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8a/Electromagnetic-Spectrum.png

We observe that that for wavelength that:
Ultraviolet < visible light < infrared.
Vice versa for frequency:
Ultraviolet > visible light > infrared.

Based on this you should be able to make a fine answer.

Answer 2

thank you

Answer 3

You're more than welcome.

Answer 4

ur just too good in science (really)

Answer 5

Well for me science is not worth a lot if we can't formulate it on to others :) but thank you.

Answer 6

:)