Question #9af62

1 Answer
Nov 26, 2017

Here's what I got.

Explanation:

The thing to remember about frequency and wavelength is that they have an inverse relationship described by the equation

color(blue)(ul(color(black)(lamda * nu = c)))

Here

  • lamda is the wavelength of the photon
  • nu is its frequency
  • c is the speed of light in a vacuum, usually given as 3 * 10^(8) "m s"^(-1)

In your case, the wavelength of the photons is given in nanometers, so start by converting it to meters

545 color(red)(cancel(color(black)("nm"))) * "1 m"/(10^9color(red)(cancel(color(black)("nm")))) = 5.45 * 10^(-7)color(white)(.)"m"

Rearrange the equation to find the frequency of the photons

lamda * nu = c implies nu = c/(lamda)

Plug in your value to find

nu = (3 * 10^8 color(red)(cancel(color(black)("m"))) "s"^(-1))/(5.45 * 10^(-7)color(red)(cancel(color(black)("m"))))

color(darkgreen)(ul(color(black)(nu = 5.50 * 10^(14)color(white)(.)"s"^(-1))))

The answer is rounded to three sig figs, the number of sig figs you have for the wavelength of the photons.

Now, to find the energy of a photon of wavelength '545 nm", you need to use the Planck - Einstein relation, which looks like this

color(blue)(ul(color(black)(E = h * nu)))

Here

  • E is the energy of the photon
  • h is Planck's constant, equal to 6.626 * 10^(-34) "J s"

Plug in your values to find

E = 6.626 * 10^(-34)"J" color(red)(cancel(color(black)("s"))) * 5.50 * 10^(14) color(red)(cancel(color(black)("s"^(-1))))

color(darkgreen)(ul(color(black)(E = 3.64 * 10^(-19)color(white)(.)"J")))

Once again, the answer is rounded to three sig figs.