Does a wave with a smaller wavelength have more energy?

Question

Thanks to all those that reply

Answer 1

It depends on whether the wave is an EM wave with only one photon,

or a classical wave with many photons.

For a single photon, the smaller wavelength would have more energy.

The energy of a classical wave depends on the amplitude squared, and not on the wavelength.

Answer 2

yes, the constant of planck relates electromagnetic wavelength to energy.  but the same is true for other waves,  given a constant amplitude

Answer 3

All things else equal, yes a smaller wavelength implies more energy.  But larger amplitude also implies more energy.  And if the wave speed changes, then so does the wavelength.  So if you have a wave at one speed and one wavelength, it can travel into a place where it has a different speed and a different wavelength, but the wave will not have gained or lost energy, so it has the same energy (this happens when light waves travel into glass or water waves travel into shallower water, etc).  

If you are comparing two waves that have the same speed, are the same types of waves (not water versus sound, or something like that), have the same amplitude, and are identical in every other way except they have different wavelength, then the smaller wavelength will have more energy.  This is intuitive, since a smaller wave will require the medium through which it passes to get jerked around faster, which requires more energy.

Answer 4

energy of a wave is

E= (hc)/(lambda)

where h = planks constant

         c= speed of light

        lambda= wavelength

so energy of the wave is inversely proportional to wavelength.

why we complicate with equations, just think which ray is more powerful X-ray or visible light?

Answer 5

well wave speed = its frequency times by it wavelength(c=f(lambda))

so frequency = its speed/its wavelength

this means that if wavelength is smaller, assuming wave speed constant , its frequency is higher.

Now energy of a wave  = plancks constant times its frequency

plancks constant is constant,

so a smaller wavelength results in higher frequency which results in more energy of the wave

Answer 6

  Amplitude constitutes more energy.