Question

Which electromagnetic wave has the shortest wavelength?

Answer 1

Hint: So, here we are asked to find the electromagnetic wave that is known to have the shortest wavelength among all the other EM waves. You could first begin by defining what these electromagnetic waves are. Then you could list down all of them and hence be given the answer.

Complete answer:
In the question, we are asked to give the EM wave that has the shortest wavelength. First of all, one has to have the basic understanding of EM waves and their spectrum. We could define EM waves as the collection of oscillating magnetic and electric fields. The electromagnetic spectrum consists of the following waves: Radio waves, Microwaves, Infrared waves, Visible light, UV rays, X-rays and Gamma rays. The above listing of EM waves is done by taking increasing frequency or decreasing wavelength as a basis. That is, among the above radio waves have the least frequency and longest wavelength and the gamma rays have the least wavelength and highest frequency. Since, energy is directly proportional to frequency, we could say that Gamma rays have the highest energy in the above list.
Therefore, we found the wavelength of Gamma rays to be less than 0.001nm and due to this very reason, fortunately, the harmful gamma rays from space don't cross the earth’s atmosphere.

Note: The Gamma rays have application in the killing of cancer cells in our bodies by the ray being propagated through the infected organs. Among the above mentioned waves, only the visible rays are visible to human eyes and hence they are named so.