nm and THz: Photons, frequency and wavelength
Ok, so I think I figured out the photon wavelength / frequency thing. Pretty obvious in retrospect.
Photons have a constant frequency (f=E/h), but their wavelength varies with the speed of light (related to density?) in the matter through which the photons travel.
All this is pretty irrelevant to me, since in the end I'm interested in fluorescence, which will only depend on the photon's energy.
However, it's interesting to note that the practice of describing light i wavelength (nm) rather than frequency is not very good because the frequency is constant while the wavelength may vary for a given photon. So instead of talking about 500 nm, maybe we should say 600 THz (terahertz) light? This would also be more intuitive in that a higher frequency is equivalent to a higher energy (whereas a shorter wavelength is equivalent to a higher energy).
Photons have a constant frequency (f=E/h), but their wavelength varies with the speed of light (related to density?) in the matter through which the photons travel.
All this is pretty irrelevant to me, since in the end I'm interested in fluorescence, which will only depend on the photon's energy.
However, it's interesting to note that the practice of describing light i wavelength (nm) rather than frequency is not very good because the frequency is constant while the wavelength may vary for a given photon. So instead of talking about 500 nm, maybe we should say 600 THz (terahertz) light? This would also be more intuitive in that a higher frequency is equivalent to a higher energy (whereas a shorter wavelength is equivalent to a higher energy).
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