Go back
Forcing light to have infinite wavelength:?

Forcing light to have infinite wavelength:?

Science

Vote Up
Vote Down

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?

1 edit
Vote Up
Vote Down

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 ....?

Vote Up
Vote Down

Sounds like a bunch of goddamn nonsense to me.

Vote Up
Vote Down

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!

Vote Up
Vote Down

Infinite wavelength implies zero energy doesn't it?

Vote Up
Vote Down

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.