Question

I need a mnemonic to learn the Frequency of Electromagnetic waves ?

Answer 1

Here is a simple trick to remember the frequency of the electromagnetic waves. The beauty of this trick is that it can also be used to remember the order of the electromagnetic waves in the decreasing order of frequency value. 

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Hurray! This trick is now also available as a video with tables and graphics for easy learning. 

You can watch it for free here: https://youtu.be/EFE2XPAgBKY

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TRICK 1: REMEMBER THE LIST AND LOWER FREQUENCIES

The trick is : 

Geography Expert Used Vans In Marketing Rock 

• Geography ( 9 letters) - Gamma rays 
• Expert (6 letters) - X-rays 
• Used (4 letters)  - Ultraviolet Radiation 
• Vans (4 letters)  - Visible light 
• In (2 letters) - Infrared radiation 
• Marketing (9 letters)  - Microwaves  // NOTE: 9 is appearing the second time
• Rock (4 letters)  - Radio waves // 

Firstly write each word and count the number of letters in them and add 1 in front of it. Write them as the power of 10 . But for the last two words (Marketing & Rock) we don't put 1 in front of count.  

• Geography - 10¹⁹
• Expert  - 10¹⁶
• Used  - 10¹⁴
• Vans  - 10¹⁴
• In  - 10¹²
• Marketing  - 10⁹  // Note: Don't add 1 in front of the count
• Rock  - 10⁴ // Note: Don't add 1 in front of the count

TRICK 2: REMEMBER THE DELTA

So far, we got the electromagnetic spectrum in order and the lower frequency limits of the electromagnetic spectrum. But the higher limit is still missing. Below is the list with both higher and lower limits. We have also marked the difference in digits between both. 

• Geography - 10¹⁹  - 10²³ // +4
• Expert  - 10¹⁶ - 10²⁰ // +4
• Used  - 10¹⁴ - 10¹⁷ // +3 
• Vans  -  10¹⁴ - 10¹⁴  // 0
• In  - 10¹² - 10¹⁴ // +2
• Marketing  - 10⁹ - 10¹²  //  +3
• Rock  - 10⁴ - 10⁹  // +5 

Finally, we need another trick to remember the difference between lower and higher limits. 

There are the values in order:  

4, 4, 3, 0, 2 , 3, 5

Here is a trick to remember them: 

PICK 4.30 AS TEA BREAK. 

Counting the letters you can again remember the digits 4, 4, 3, 0, 2 , 3, 5 : 

• PICK - 4 letters 
• 4
• 3
• 0 
• AS  - 2 letters
• TEA  - 3 letters
• BREAK - 5 letters

Add these above digits to each lower limit of each waves in the list in the same order. 

 

In short all you have to do is to roughly write the 1st trick as a list and develop it into the below list following the steps above (doing most of the part mentally).

• Geography ( 9 letters) - Gamma rays  - 10¹⁹  - 10²³
• Expert (6 letters) - X-rays - 10¹⁶ - 10²⁰
• Used (4 letters)  - Ultraviolet Radiation  - 10¹⁴ - 10¹⁷
• Vans (4 letters)  - Visible light -  10¹⁴ - 10¹⁴
• In (2 letters) - Infrared radiation - 10¹² - 10¹⁴
• Marketing (9 letters)  - Microwaves  - 10⁹ - 10¹²
• Rock (4 letters)  - Radio waves - 10⁴ - 10⁹ 

 

This question was asked on our chat support by Nehra Komal. Just chat with us if you need a free trick like this!