Compute an order-of-magnitude estimate for the frequency of an electromagnetic wave with wavelength equal to (a) your height and (b) the thickness of a sheet of paper. How is each wave classified on the electromagnetic spectrum?

Rohan Mcpherson

Rohan Mcpherson

Answered question

2022-09-29

Compute an order-of-magnitude estimate for the frequency of an electromagnetic wave with wavelength equal to (a) your height and (b) the thickness of a sheet of paper. How is each wave classified on the electromagnetic spectrum?

Answer & Explanation

typeOccutfg

typeOccutfg

Beginner2022-09-30Added 6 answers

To find: An order-of-magnitude estimate for the frequency of an electromagnetic wave with wavelength equal to
(a) your height and,
(b) the thickness of a sheet of paper.
Solution Part (a): The height of a person is equal to 174 cm or 1.74 m (approximately). The speed of the electromagnetic wave is c = 3 × 10 8   m / s The frequency of the radiation of wavelength 1.74 m equals to,
f = c λ f = 3 × 10 8   m / s 1.74   m f = 1.72 × 10 8   H z = 172   M H z
The given frequency falls in the region of AM radio waves.
Solution Part (b): The thickness of the paper is approximately equal to 0.05 mm to 0.10 mm. So, the average thickness of the paper is 0.075 mm. By using the relation of frequency and wavelength we calculate the corresponding frequency of the radiation corresponding to 0.075 mm as,
f = c λ f = 3 × 10 8   m / s 0.075   m m = 3 × 10 8   m / s 0.75 × 10 4   m f = 4 × 10 12   H z = 4000   M H z
The given frequency falls in the infrared category.
Answers:
The order-of-magnitude estimate for the frequency of an electromagnetic wave with wavelength equal to
(a) our height falls in the region of AM radio waves.
(b) the thickness of a sheet of paper falls in the infrared category.

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