7 ms·
> everyone is technically on the spectrum. Most spectrums start at zero.
by mchahn 11y ago
> everyone is technically on the spectrum.
Most spectrums start at zero.
- conceit 11y agoSpectra like size? Are there zero meter tall buildings, Prof. Smartypants?
- justinclift 11y agoThere are even negatively tall buildings... :)
- PhasmaFelis 11y agoNo they don't. The electromagnetic spectrum doesn't even have a zero (a wave with zero frequency isn't a wave).
- mchahn 11y agoHmm. One could define DC to be a wave with zero frequency and most equations would work correctly. You often define a value at a singularity as a fixed value because that fixed value is approached as you get closer and closer. I personally have no problem thinking of a wave with zero amplitude.
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- PhasmaFelis 11y agoHmm. Maybe. I think you can have a wave whose frequency is effectively zero for practical purposes, but in the most literal sense, a wave is defined by oscillation. In the case of EM in particular, I think the uncertainty principle says that a photon can't have zero energy, and thus can't have zero frequency (though it can be immeasurably low).
- kazagistar 11y agoHmm, I am not convinced. Photons are quantized, and there is a significant difference between a photon existing and not existing.
- dekhn 11y agoYes, frequency 0 is direct current.
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- andrewflnr 11y agoWe're not talking about AC frequencies here. Electromagnetic waves are different. The only 0-frequency EM wave is literally "no wave". Nothing happening.
- Confusion 11y agoI'd say it still starts at zero, even if the zero itself doesn't correspond to anything physical. Everything not quite zero still corresponds to something that may actually exist. mHz (small m) radio waves are real things.
- mchahn 11y ago> even if the zero itself doesn't correspond to anything physical. Good point. Zero stones don't physically exist. That is why it took so long for cultures to include zero as a number. I read an entire book about zero (and one each about pi, e, infinity, and sqrt(-1)).
- fapjacks 11y agoCan you link those books?