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Assuming a sinusoidal wave moving at a fixed wave speed, wavelength is inversely proportional to the frequency of the wave: waves with higher frequencies have shorter wavelengths, and lower frequencies have longer wavelengths. [6] Wavelength depends on the medium (for example, vacuum, air, or water) that a wave travels through.
The electromagnetic spectrum is the full range of electromagnetic radiation, organized by frequency or wavelength. The spectrum is divided into separate bands, with different names for the electromagnetic waves within each band. From low to high frequency these are: radio waves, microwaves, infrared, visible light, ultraviolet, X-rays, and ...
For example, a wavenumber in inverse centimeters can be converted to a frequency expressed in the unit gigahertz by multiplying by 29.979 2458 cm/ns (the speed of light, in centimeters per nanosecond); [5] conversely, an electromagnetic wave at 29.9792458 GHz has a wavelength of 1 cm in free space.
where v is the speed of the wave (c in a vacuum or less in other media), f is the frequency and λ is the wavelength. As waves cross boundaries between different media, their speeds change but their frequencies remain constant. Electromagnetic waves in free space must be solutions of Maxwell's electromagnetic wave equation. Two main classes of ...
Light waves of all frequencies travel at the same speed of light while matter wave velocity varies strongly with frequency. The relationship between frequency (proportional to energy) and wavenumber or velocity (proportional to momentum) is called a dispersion relation.
In the context of electromagnetics and optics, the frequency is some function ω(k) of the wave number, so in general, the phase velocity and the group velocity depend on specific medium and frequency. The ratio between the speed of light c and the phase velocity v p is known as the refractive index, n = c / v p = ck / ω.
Dispersion occurs when sinusoidal waves of different wavelengths have different propagation velocities, so that a wave packet of mixed wavelengths tends to spread out in space. The speed of a plane wave, , is a function of the wave's wavelength : = ().
In physics, a wave vector (or wavevector) is a vector used in describing a wave, with a typical unit being cycle per metre.It has a magnitude and direction.Its magnitude is the wavenumber of the wave (inversely proportional to the wavelength), and its direction is perpendicular to the wavefront.