Question

You can use the radio waves generated by a hydrogen maser as a standard of frequency. The frequency of these waves is 1,420,405,751.786 Hertz. (A Hertz is another name for one cycle per second.) A clock controlled by a hydrogen maser is off by only 1 s in 100,000 years. For the following questions, use only three significant figures. (The large number of significant figures given for the frequency simply illustrates the remarkable accuracy to which it has been measured.)

What is the time for one cycle of the radio wave?

Answer 1

The time for one cycle of the radio wave can be calculated by taking the reciprocal of its frequency. The frequency of the radio wave generated by a hydrogen maser is 1,420,405,751.786 Hertz.

Step-by-step explanation:

The time for one cycle of the radio wave can be calculated by taking the reciprocal of its frequency. The frequency of the radio wave generated by a hydrogen maser is 1,420,405,751.786 Hertz. Therefore, the time for one cycle can be calculated as:

1 cycle = 1 / frequency

1 cycle = 1 / 1,420,405,751.786 Hz

1 cycle = 7.0463 × 10-10 seconds