A photon has a frequency of #2.68 * 10^6# Hz. What is its energy?

1 Answer
Dec 29, 2015

#1.78 * 10^(-27)"J"#

Explanation:

As you know, the energy of a photon is directly proportional to its frequency.

This relationship between energy and frequency is established by the Planck - Einstein equation, which looks like this

#color(blue)(E = h * nu)" "#, where

#E# - the energy of the photon
#h# - Planck's constant, equal to #6.626 * 10^(-34)"J s"#
#nu# - the frequency of the photon

Notice that the frequency of the photon is given to you in hertz, #"Hz"#. As you know, one hertz, which denotes one cycle per second, is equivalent to

#"1 Hz" = "1 s"^(-1)#

Plug in the value you have and solve for #E# to get

#E = 6.626 * 10^(-34)"J" color(red)(cancel(color(black)("s"))) * 2.68 * 10^6color(red)(cancel(color(black)("s"^(-1))))#

#E = 1.7758 * 10^(-27)"J"#

Rounded to three sig figs, the answer will be

#E = color(green)(1.78 * 10^(-27)"J")#