Question

What happens at the ends of the electromagnetic spectrum? Do the wavelengths continue to get shorter and longer or is there some ultimate limit?

Asked by: Jim Clark

 Answer

The electromagnetic spectrum has no theoretical limit at either end. You can create as long a wavelength (ie. as low a frequency) as you want simply be moving an electric charge back and forth in as long a period of time as you choose. Given the proportionality of energy and frequency, long wavelengths such as this represent very low energies.

At the other end of the spectrum, it takes higher energies to create higher frequencies (shorter wavelengths). That means you are limited only by the energy available. If all the mass/energy in the Universe is considered a 'limit', then that would be the only real theoretical limit to the maximum frequency attainable.

Answered by: Paul Walorski, B.A. Physics, Part-time Physics Instructor

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'The strength and weakness of physicists is that we believe in what we can measure. And if we can't measure it, then we say it probably doesn't exist. And that closes us off to an enormous amount of phenomena that we may not be able to measure because they only happened once. For example, the Big Bang. ... That's one reason why they scoffed at higher dimensions for so many years. Now we realize that there's no alternative... '

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