which is bigger an atom of a wavelength of light?

Question

how much bigger? A little or a lot?

Answer 1

Atoms are all different sizes and so are wavelengths of light. It depends on which ones you are talking about.

Answer 2

Light can be either bigger or smaller than any atom, or for that matter any subatomic particle, with the only exception being a Planck particle, where the wavelength of light can never get shorter than pi times the Planck radius.
The problem is in the generation of very short wavelength light, not in any theoretical constaint as to how short a wavelength can get, except in regard to the Planck scale where optical geometic limits take place due to the space-time curvature caused by the light itself.

And for the record, each wavelength only contains one quanta, or photon. Each quanta is an action h or Plancks constant.
Since light has the velocity of light, then the smaller the wavelength the more quanta arrive per unit time, resulting in high energy for short wavelengths. Or if thinking in terms of frequency, E=hf.

Answer 3

Atomic Radii vary from a few Angstroms (0.1 nanometers) on up to less than a nanometer (nm). The shortest wavelength of visible light is around 400nm. The longest is around 750nm. So visible light is a LOT bigger in wavelength than an atom. This is a fundamental reason why we cannot resolve an atom in an optical microscope. We can only resolve objects of about the same size as the wavelength of light we are using to 'see' it.

Now they do have light of a shorter wavelength, but that's not visible light. It's extremely high energy X-rays and Gamma Rays.

Answer 4

wavelengths of light are bigger. They're somewhere between 100 and 100,000 times bigger. The range is so large because different kinds of light vary greatly in wavelength, and I might be off, by a zero, while comparing the size of atoms to them. Atoms are the smallest thing in the world, though, so I wouldn't say anything's bigger than them, generallys peaking.

Answer 5

Depends on the wavelength of light.

Visible light is around 380 to 700 nanometers or so.

For example, mercury light generates two wavelengths, a green light at 546 nm and a violet light at 436 nm wavelength.

A typical atom is around a tenth of a nanometer in diameter.

So the wavelength of visible light is around 4 to 7 thousand times longer than an atom is wide.

But light also includes the wavelengths that are the same size of atoms and even smaller. These shorter wavelengths include ultraviolet, X-Rays, Gamma Rays, and even Cosmic Rays. Any "light" from X-Rays and shorter will be smaller than atoms and anything from the longer ultraviolet light to visible, infrared, microwaves, radar, or radio waves will be bigger than atoms.

Answer 6

If you took the smallest known form of both atoms and "light" wavelength (even though the last post says too small wavelength isn't light, which is ridiculous), and then compared their size, the atom would be larger. The light is energy, so it can get smaller, and smaller, and smaller, with pretty much no limit.

Answer 7

The Wavelength of light will be bigger. This is because all light is comprised of photons, a wavelength contains trillions of photons, therefore a wavelength of light will be bigger.

Answer 8

The diameter of an hydrogen atom is 1 Angstrom and the wavelike of laser light is several angstroms.

Answer 9

Both previous posters are wrong...

visible light is on the scale of nanometers (10^-9 meters) Anything smaller than that, we don't call "light" by convention.

The bohr radius is on the scale of 10^-11 meters

Atoms are ALWAYS smaller. End of story.