Scaling the Spectrum

Frequency Range Table

EMR Bands	Frequency Range (Hertz)	1014 Conversions
Radio & Microwave	Near 0 to 3.0 x 1012	.
Infrared	3.0 x 1012 to 4.6 x 1014	.
Visible	4.6 x 1014 to 7.5 x 1014	4.6 x 1014 to 7.5 x 1014
Red	4.6 x 1014 to 5.1 x 1014	4.6 x 1014 to 5.1 x 1014
Orange	5.1 x 1014 to 5.6 x 1014	5.1 x 1014 to 5.6 x 1014
Yellow	5.6 x 1014 to 6.1 x 1014	5.6 x 1014 to 6.1 x 1014
Green	6.1 x 1014 to 6.5 x 1014	6.1 x 1014 to 6.5 x 1014
Blue	6.5 x 1014 to 7.0 x 1014	6.5 x 1014 to 7.0 x 1014
Violet	7.0 x 1014 to 7.5 x 1014	7.0 x 1014 to 7.5 x 1014
Ultraviolet	7.5 x 1014 to 6.0 x 1016	.
X-ray	6.0 x 1016 to 1.0 x 1020	.
Gamma Ray	1.0 x 1020 to...	.

3. Before you can construct the linear scale, it is necessary to convert the frequencies that you used for the logarithmic scale. Those numbers simply told you the range of frequencies, or amount of energy, that each of the bands of EMR covers within the spectrum. Now we want to compare the width of each of the individual bands of radiation relative to each other. We can do this by converting all of the bands of EMR to the same frequency range. We will arbitrarily select the frequency range of the visible band, 10¹⁴. Convert the frequency numbers for all bands (except visible) in the Frequency Range Table above to 10¹⁴ and record them in the table ( tutorial on converting exponents).