What exactly is frequency of incident light? how & why does stopping potential depend on it?

Question

What exactly is frequency of incident light? how & why does stopping potential depend on it?

Answer 1

Light can be visualized as a wave. The frequency of the wave refers to how many wave crests pass a give point per second. For example, if you were to look at waves on the beach you might say that 2 waves pass you per second - that is the frequency.

The frequency of a wave is also related to the energy of the wave. As the frequency increases so does the energy.

Stopping potential is a measure of how much energy is required to stop an electron that is released for the photoelectric material. Since the energy of the photon dictates how much energy the released electrons have, frequency is related to stopping potential.

In the future I suggest you use Google and Wikipedia to research your answers. The web is full of useful information.