Page 2, Light & Astronomy: [Previous Page] [Next Page] [Class Home Page] Text Pages 65-67



What makes different KINDS of LIGHT?


Light is a wave. It has CRESTS and TROUGHS. The distance from one crest to the next (or one trough to the next) is called the WAVELENGTH:


Another way to look at light is to count the number of crests that pass by. This gives you the frequency of the light:


You can identify the light as having a particular wavelength OR frequency, and these are related because the SPEED of light, `c', is a constant. They are related in this way:

WHERE: