An instrument is sensitive to laser light packets that carry at least 3.84 × 10-23 J of energy. How many photons of light of wavelength of 9.58 m can the instrument detect?

Question

anonymous · Answer

photons travel in packets of energy equal to Planck's constant, h, times their frequency, f 

$$E=hf$$

and the frequency of a photon is given by the equation
$$c = \lambda f$$
where c is the speed of light, and lambda is the wavelength.

So the total number of photons able to be detected is gonna be either 1 or zero - it either can detect that energy of photon or it can't ^_^

anonymous · Answer

err, I guess either infinity or zero.  Meh.