An x-ray has a wavelength of 5 nanometers (#5.0 * 10^-9# m). What is the frequency of these x-rays?
1 Answer
Dec 26, 2015
The only relationship you need to know here is:
#\mathbf(c/lambda = nu)# where
#c# is the speed of light,#lambda# is the wavelength, and#nu# is the frequency.
You can derive this by simply knowing that the units are:
#"?"/("m") = 1/"s"#
#=> "?" = "m"/"s"#
and evidently, the speed of light is in
#nu = c/lambda#
#= (2.998xx10^8 cancel"m""/s")/(5.0 xx 10^(-9) cancel"m")#
#= color(blue)(5.996xx10^16 "s"^(-1))# or#color(blue)("Hz")#
A typical X-ray has a frequency of about