Both light and sound are waves. Sound is measured in Hz. how are light waves measured?

Question

and is the mass of a light wave composed of freq's simular to soundwaves? and is there a physical analogous comparison of light waves to sound waves?

scratch the part about the mass of light.

Answer 1

"Both light and sound are waves." "and is there a physical analogous comparison of light waves to sound waves?"

Yes they are both waves. However, light is known as an electromagnetic wave which is a propagating disturbance of both the electric and magnetic field in space. Sound however is a pressure wave transmitted through a medium. Light waves are transverse meaning the direction of travel is perpendicular to the direction of oscillation. While sound waves are longitudinal meaning the direction of travel is parallel to the direction of oscillation. Another difference is that light waves DO NOT need a medium of travel (they can go through a vacuum) however sound waves exist only in a medium.

"Sound is measured in Hz. how are light waves measured?"
You are correct, one measurement of sound is in Hz. However, waves have 4 unique properties. Velocity the rate that it propagates which is measured in m/s. Frequency, how many times the wave repeats itself in a period of time measured in Hz. Wavelength, the distance between complete cycles measured in meters. And finally, Amplitude or Intensity which is measured in decibels or W/m^2 which measures how high the crests become and how low the troughs become. The larger the amplitude the higher the peaks and lower the valleys. This is also measured in meters. Higher intensitys is proportional to the amount of energy the wave has.

As far as measuring a light wave, we usually measure the intensity and either the wavelength or frequency of the light wave. The wavelength of light and sound is inversely proportional to the frequency because the velocity is fixed to the speed of sound 343 m/s or the speed of light 3.00 x 10^8 m/s.
The higher the frequency of light, the more the light moves to the purple end of the spectrum (think about the rainbow). The human eye typically picks up light between 390 (purple) nm - 970 (red) nm

velocity = wavelength * frequency.

Answer 2

Yep light is a wave and can be measured in Hz. If you shine a laser through a small slit the beam will be relatively wide when the beam hits a surface. Just an experiment you can do to show light does behave like sound and diffract. I'm not sure what you are getting at with the mass of a wave. Photons, and hence light waves have no mass. There probably is a comparison of light waves to sound waves, but i wouldn't be able to help you there. Light waves are at a much much higher frequency than sound waves.

Edit : This all applies as long as you think of light purely as a wave. If you want to get into quantum mechanics, then you can look at light as a particle and a wave at the same time. Another example would be a Electrons in an atom. They are waves and particles at the same time and unless you want me to go into it I won't bother.

Answer 3

Yes both are waves only.
Waves has different parameters like Frequency, Intensity, Amplitude,wave length.........

Frequency is measured by Hz,
Wave length by Labda
Intensity by Decibel(sound), lumen,lux for light
so dont get confused with parameters of waves

Answer 4

Yes you could measure light waves in Hz, which is a frequency, in fact light waves are no different than radio waves except that radio waves are much longer. When you tune your radio to 99.9 FM, this is for a 99.9 Mhz (million hertz) carrier frequency.

Light waves however have such high frequency, that more often they are measure in nano-meters or angstrongs; these are measures of the wave length as opposed to their frequency. But if you know the wavelength, and the speed of light, the freq = wavelength / speed.

Not sure what you are talking about with mass of waves... Maybe you are refering to the mass of the medium through which the waves are travelling - with sound, it travels faster through denser objects. With light it travels slower through denser objects (speed of light is only a constant in a vacuum!).

Answer 5

Sound Is Measured In

Answer 6

both sound and light are forms of energy. both travel in wave form. the frequency of both these are measured in Hz. intensities are measured in decibells in case of sound and incandascence in case of light

Answer 7

light is a wave and a particle not just a wave

light isn't rely measured in anything except brightness

9not really sure