A light beam has a frequency of 5 x 1015 Hz. What is its wavelength?
To find the wavelength of a light beam, we can use the formula:
wavelength = speed of light / frequency
The speed of light is a constant value, which is approximately equal to 3.00 x 10^8 meters per second (m/s).
Now, let's calculate the wavelength:
wavelength = 3.00 x 10^8 m/s / (5 x 10^15 Hz)
To simplify the calculation, we can divide both the numerator and denominator by 10^8:
wavelength = 3.00 / 5 x 10^(8-15) m
Since 8 - 15 is -7, we can rewrite the equation as:
wavelength = 3.00 / 5 x 10^(-7) m
Finally, we can express this in scientific notation:
wavelength ≈ 6.00 x 10^(-7) m
So, the wavelength of the light beam is approximately 6.00 x 10^(-7) meters, or 600 nanometers (nm).