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How does photon energy change as electromagnetic frequency increases?
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In the context of physics, the energy of a photon is directly proportional to the frequency of the electromagnetic radiation. As the frequency ( or ) of the radiation increases, the energy () of the individual photons increases accordingly.123
This relationship is expressed by the equation:
In this formula, represents Planckās constant, a fundamental physical constant. Because is a fixed value, the energy of a photon scales linearly with its frequency. Consequently, high-frequency radiationāsuch as X-rays and gamma raysāconsists of photons with significantly higher energy than those found in low-frequency radiation, such as radio waves.2431