Wavelength
hideIn physics, the wavelength of a sinusoidal wave is the spatial period of the wave – the distance over which the wave's shape repeats. It is usually determined by considering the distance between consecutive corresponding points of the same phase, such as crests, troughs, or zero crossings, and is a characteristic of both traveling waves and standing waves. Wavelength is commonly designated by the Greek letter lambda (λ). The concept can also be applied to periodic waves of non-sinusoidal shape. The term wavelength is also sometimes applied to modulated waves, and to the sinusoidal envelopes of modulated waves or waves formed by interference of several sinusoids.
Assuming a sinusoidal wave moving at a fixed wave speed, wavelength is inversely proportional to frequency: waves with higher frequencies have shorter wavelengths, and lower frequencies have longer wavelengths.
Examples of wave-like phenomena are sound waves, light, and water waves. A sound wave is a periodic variation in air pressure, while in light and other electromagnetic radiation the strength of the electric and the magnetic field vary. Water waves are periodic variations in the height of a body of water. In a crystal lattice vibration, atomic positions vary periodically in both lattice position and time.
Wavelength is a measure of the distance between repetitions of a shape feature such as peaks, valleys, or zero-crossings, not a measure of how far any given particle moves. For example, in waves over deep water a particle in the water moves in a circle of the same diameter as the wave height, unrelated to wavelength.
For more information about Wavelength, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
News tagged with wavelength
Building a more versatile laser
Nov 16, 2009 |
4.5 / 5 (19) |
0
(PhysOrg.com) -- One of the drawbacks associated with using semiconductor lasers is that many of them can only produce a beam of a single wavelength, and can only send that beam in one direction at a time. ...
Physicists Demonstrate Three-Color Entanglement
Oct 07, 2009 |
4.3 / 5 (25) |
3
(PhysOrg.com) -- For the first time, physicists have demonstrated the quantum entanglement of three light beams, all of different wavelengths. Entanglement of two light beams of different wavelengths has already ...
All your movies on a single DVD: study
May 20, 2009 |
4.8 / 5 (32) |
9
Scientists unveiled new DVD technology on Wednesday that stores data in five dimensions, making it possible to pack more than 2,000 movies onto a single disc.
Infrared Nanotube Films Offer Advantages for Solar Cells and More
Mar 11, 2009 |
4.5 / 5 (11) |
0
(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers have already known that carbon nanotube thin films have mechanical and conductive advantages that could make them useful as electrodes in solar cells, solid state lighting, and ...
Scientists Create Light-Bending Nanoparticles
Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials
Mar 03, 2009 |
4.5 / 5 (20) |
2
(PhysOrg.com) -- Metallic nanoparticles and other structures can manipulate light in ways that are not possible with conventional optical materials. In a recent example of this, Rice University researchers ...
Quantum dots as midinfrared emitters
Feb 23, 2009 |
4.1 / 5 (10) |
1
(PhysOrg.com) -- “People are interested in the mid-infrared,” Dan Wasserman tells PhysOrg.com. Infrared light has a wavelength longer than visible light, and many molecules have numerous very strong optical resonances in the ...
Hubble's Deepest View of Universe Unveils Never-Before-Seen Galaxies (w/ Video)
Dec 08, 2009 |
4.7 / 5 (48) |
33
(PhysOrg.com) -- In 2004, Hubble created the Hubble Ultra Deep Field (HUDF), the deepest visible-light image of the Universe, and now, with its brand-new camera, Hubble is seeing even farther. This image was ...
Fermi Telescope Peers Deep into Microquasar (w/ Video)
Nov 27, 2009 |
4.8 / 5 (17) |
0
(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has made the first unambiguous detection of high-energy gamma-rays from an enigmatic binary system known as Cygnus X-3. The system pairs a hot, massive ...
Chinese scientists create metamaterial black hole
Oct 16, 2009 |
4 / 5 (55) |
20
(PhysOrg.com) -- Two physicists in China have used metamaterials to create the first artificial electromagnetic black hole. The scientists, Qiang Cheng and Tie Jun Cui from the Southeast University in Nanjing, ...
Spot discovered on dwarf planet Haumea shows up red and rich with organics
Sep 16, 2009 |
4.4 / 5 (16) |
2
A dark red area discovered on dwarf planet Haumea appears to be richer in minerals and organic compounds than the surrounding icy surface. The discovery will be presented at the European Planetary Science ...
Acoustic tweezers can position tiny objects
Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials
Aug 28, 2009 |
5 / 5 (7) |
1
(PhysOrg.com) -- Manipulating tiny objects like single cells or nanosized beads often requires relatively large, unwieldy equipment, but now a system that uses sound as a tiny tweezers can be small enough ...
Breakthrough uses light to manipulate cell movement
Aug 19, 2009 |
5 / 5 (6) |
1
One of the biggest challenges in scientists' quest to develop new and better treatments for cancer is gaining a better understanding of how and why cancer spreads. Recent breakthroughs have uncovered how ...
Expanding Spot on Venus Puzzles Astronomers
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Aug 04, 2009 |
4.2 / 5 (30) |
7
(PhysOrg.com) -- The expanding spot discovered on Venus last month may not have garnered as much attention as the meteor impact with Jupiter, but its cause is certainly more puzzling. ...
Breaking the Planck's law, at the nanoscale
Jul 29, 2009 |
5 / 5 (25) |
11
(PhysOrg.com) -- A well-established physical law describes the transfer of heat between two objects, but some physicists have long predicted that the law should break down when the objects are very close together. ...
There is more to bats' vision than meets the eye
Jul 28, 2009 |
5 / 5 (1) |
0
The eyes of nocturnal bats possess two spectral cone photoreceptor types for daylight and colour vision. Reporting in the open-access, peer-reviewed journal PLoS ONE, scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Br ...
