Chapter 3.2, Problem 3.7YT

Skill Building Wavelength, Frequency, and Energy

Return to Figure 3.4, and calculate the amount of energy present in a wave of red light and a wave of blue light. Are they the same amount of energy? Why or why not?

  In the not-too-distant past, many people used film exposure to take pictures. A “dark” room was a place where this film was developed into the actual images based on how light exposed the film during the taking of the pictures. These dark rooms used red lights during the time of developing the film because a special dye was added to the film that was not affected by light with a wavelength between 620 and 750 nm. Do you think these rooms could have also used blue lights? Why or why not?

Figure 3.4

The electromagnetic spectrum, highlighting the visible region. Note that 10^x is equivalent to 1 × 10^x.