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I know what you're thinking after you read that title: If the wavelength is infinitely long, isn't it a line rather than a wave?
In 2015, researchers, researchers at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) developed the first on-chip metamaterial with a refractive index of zero, meaning that the phase of light could be stretched infinitely long. The metamaterial represented a new method to manipulate light and was an important step forward for integrated photonic circuits, which use light rather than electrons to perform a wide variety of functions.
Now, SEAS researchers have pushed that technology further - developing a zero-index waveguide compatible with current silicon photonic technologies. In doing so, the team observed a physical phenomenon that is usually unobservable—a standing wave of light.
The research is published in ACS Photonics.
There's a lot more in the full story about the difficulties of proving the wavelength is infinite and what can be down with this new material with a refractive index of 0.
(Score: 3, Informative) by c0lo on Tuesday October 10 2017, @02:22PM
I don't know what ancient times you refer to, but the guys that invented differentials and gave a definition for the curvature are dead for a long time.
The curvature in any given point on the trajectory is defined [wikipedia.org] in the terms of the cross-product between the instant velocity of the trajectory and the acceleration on the trajectory.
With a constant curvature you get a circle - the velocity is always tangent to trajectory, the acceleration is always normal and centripetal.
Do it on a line and the velocity and acceleration are collinear - which leads to a zero cross product, thus a straight line has zero-curvature.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford