Units of Wave-number

Most recent answer: 07/25/2013

Q:
Why does wave number have units although it is the number of waves present in 1cm length?
- Kenny Toijam (age 16)
Imphal-East,Manipur,India
A:

You've really just illustrated why wave-number would have units, with your choice of "cm" as the unit of length. In the SI system, for example, one would choose meters and get a different numerical value, 100 times larger. So you need to include the units to determine what the numerical value signifies.

Mike W.


(published on 07/25/2013)