Is there a maximum frequency that an electromagnetic wave can support?
Asked
Active
Viewed 144 times
3
-
4Possible duplicate of What is the minimum wavelength of electromagnetic radiation? – John Rennie Apr 04 '16 at 06:05
2 Answers
3
No. There is an approximate limit to the wavelengths (spectrum) emitted by an object of a given temperature: in fact, before quantum mechanics, there was a problem called the "UV catastrophe" where calculations of the spectrum suggested there should be infinite power in the shortest wavelengths; QM could explain away this problem, and it was one of the early triumphs of the theory.
But in principle there is no limit (that I know of) on the energy of an individual photon - and therefore, no upper limit on the frequency.
Floris
- 118,905
1
Yes(at least measurably). According to generalized uncertainty principle, the Planck length(1.616199e-35m)is the the shortest measurable length(within a factor of 10). So that can be the shortest wavelength possible. Which gives maximum frequency to be 6.187356e34 Hz. Plank length - Wikipedia
Vidya Sagar V
- 175