Forcing light to have infinite wavelength:?

sonhouse

Fast and Curious

Science

15 Oct 13

sonhouse

Fast and Curious

slatington, pa, usa

Joined: 28 Dec 04
Moves: 53321

15 Oct 13

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?

humy

Joined: 06 Mar 12
Moves: 642

16 Oct 13

1 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 ....?

Soothfast

0,1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21,

Planet Rain

Joined: 04 Mar 04
Moves: 2709

28 Oct 13

Sounds like a bunch of goddamn nonsense to me.

KazetNagorra

Germany

Joined: 27 Oct 08
Moves: 3118

28 Oct 13

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!

AThousandYoung

1st Dan TKD Kukkiwon

tinyurl.com/2te6yzdu

Joined: 23 Aug 04
Moves: 26748

29 Oct 13

Infinite wavelength implies zero energy doesn't it?

humy

Joined: 06 Mar 12
Moves: 642

29 Oct 13

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.