Video Transcript
What is the name of the type of
electromagnetic radiation that has the shortest wavelengths?
We see from our question that
indeed there are various types of electromagnetic radiation. The type we’re most familiar with
is visible light, light that our eyes are sensitive to. But then if we set up an axis so
that larger wavelengths are to the right and correspondingly shorter wavelengths are
to the left, we’ve seen through various scientific experiments that visible light is
not the only kind of light there is. Another type of radiation with
wavelengths just longer than that of visible light is called infrared radiation. Then, even beyond that, there are
microwaves and then finally radio waves. This is the type of electromagnetic
radiation with the longest wavelengths of all.
There are also more types of
electromagnetic radiation if we move to the left of visible light, to shorter
wavelength. There is ultraviolet radiation,
invisible to our eyes but nonetheless very real. Then, at even shorter wavelengths,
there are X-rays. And finally, with the shortest
wavelengths of all, there are gamma rays. Something good to know about
electromagnetic radiation is that wavelength 𝜆 and energy 𝐸 are inversely
related. That is, radiation with a shorter
wavelength possesses greater energy. In this case, we just want to
identify the name of the type of electromagnetic radiation that has the shortest of
all wavelengths. We can see that that type is gamma
rays. Note that there’s actually no lower
limit to the wavelength of gamma rays. This is the type of electromagnetic
radiation that has the shortest wavelengths.
