Question

What color light has the highest frequency?

Answer 1

Violet.

Explanation:

Violet waves have the most energy of the visible spectrum.

Remember: `" "c=flambda`

Therefore: `" "f=c/lambda`

Here `c` is the speed of light in a vacuum.

So:

As wavelength decreases, frequency increases and, as `E=hf`, where `h` is constant (Planck's constant), so does the energy that the waves carry. Waves with a short wavelength have the most energy.

Red waves have a relatively long wavelength (in the 700 nm range), and violet waves are much shorter - roughly half that.

Because violet waves have the shortest wavelength of the visible light spectrum, they carry the most energy.

Answer 2

I remember it as the highest frequency indicating the highest energy. The higher the frequency, the faster the oscillations and thus the higher the energy. Therefore, the highest-frequency ultra-violet light (or the lowest wavelength) is violet. However, the highest-frequency visible light would have to be roughly blue.

`200~400nm` is difficult to see, while `400~700nm` is more often the more visible end of the light spectrum.