All photons go through what physicists refer to as an oscillation cycle. The cycle is created by the appearance and disappearance of the photon’s electric and magnetic fields. One oscillation cycle goes from the peak of the positive electric field to the peak of the next positive electric field. Just how far a photon travels while it goes through one oscillation cycle is calculated as follows:
In this equation, the velocity of light is divided by the time it takes to make one oscillation period. The seconds cancel out, and we are left with a value in meters for our answer, which is the distance traveled by a photon while it goes through one oscillation cycle. This is the only meaning that you can ascribe to this equation. It gives a false impression to think the answer is the length of the electromagnetic wave, even though by convention physicists refer to “meters traveled by a photon” as wavelength. The equation does not calculate the wavelength of anything; it merely calculates how far a photon travels as it goes through one cycle.
The equation above is normally shown as follows:
Keep in mind that all photons travel at the same velocity (c), which is referred to as the speed or velocity of light. However, a low energy radio wave photon oscillates very slowly compared to a visible light photon, which means a radio wave photon travels a much greater distance in order to go through one oscillation cycle. By convention, we say a radio wave has a “long wavelength”, when in reality it simply means the radio wave photon takes longer to go through one oscillation than a photon of visible light.
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