Yahoo Answers is shutting down on May 4th, 2021 (Eastern Time) and beginning April 20th, 2021 (Eastern Time) the Yahoo Answers website will be in read-only mode. There will be no changes to other Yahoo properties or services, or your Yahoo account. You can find more information about the Yahoo Answers shutdown and how to download your data on this help page.

What types of electromagnetic waves can be described as ionising?

3 Answers

Relevance
  • Anonymous
    8 years ago
    Favorite Answer

    High energy UV, X-rays and gamma rays.

    Edit to dx: The hydrogen ionisation energy you quoted falls in the extreme/vacuum UV range. As I said ...

  • 8 years ago

    Depends entirely on the atom you're concerned about. Each atom has a different energy at which it becomes ionised, due to varying numbers of protons and electrons. If you take Hydrogen as an example, its ionisation energy is 13.6eV which corresponds to an electromagnetic wavelength of 91.18 nm.

    This can be calculated by converting eV to Joules (by multiplying by 1.6*10^-19) then using the equation E=hf (where h is Planck's constant and f is the frequency of the electromagnetic radiation) and the fact c=wavelength*f (where c is the speed of light).

    Source(s): Degree in physics
  • 8 years ago

    I think all em wave shave potental tp ionose it more depends upon the medium and its dielectric strength.

Still have questions? Get your answers by asking now.