1. Subscribersonhouse
    Fast and Curious
    slatington, pa, usa
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    15 Oct '13 20:10
    http://phys.org/news/2013-10-material-visible-infinite-wavelength.html#ajTabs

    Not sure exactly what this means, anyone have an idea what infinite wavelength means?

    And why it would be useful? Isn't infinite wavelength just another way of saying DC?
  2. Joined
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    16 Oct '13 10:141 edit
    I had previously read that link before you made the OP and I am afraid I was just us puzzled as you were and also wondered exactly what “infinite wavelength” physically means in this context.
    A photon is an oscillation of electric and magnetic fields where each generates the other through space. If a photon has infinite wavelength, then those electric and magnetic fields no longer oscillate and the implications of that are ....?
  3. Standard memberSoothfast
    0,1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21,
    Planet Rain
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    28 Oct '13 19:49
    Sounds like a bunch of goddamn nonsense to me.
  4. Germany
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    28 Oct '13 20:44
    Sometimes physicists try to use flashy language to make their work seem more interesting. You find something that is kind of related to phenomenon X? Just name it super-X!
  5. Standard memberAThousandYoung
    or different places
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    29 Oct '13 03:22
    Infinite wavelength implies zero energy doesn't it?
  6. Joined
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    29 Oct '13 08:24
    Originally posted by AThousandYoung
    Infinite wavelength implies zero energy doesn't it?
    This is certainly true for a photon moving through a vacuum. In fact, a photon moving through a vacuum with infinite wavelength technically doesn't exist. However, in the link in the OP, the context was an existing photon moving through a metamaterial so not sure what that implies in that context.
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