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- In contrast, light waves can travel through a vacuum, and do not require a medium. In empty space, the wave does not dissipate (grow smaller) no matter how far it travels, because the wave is not interacting with anything else.
van.physics.illinois.edu/ask/listing/21368
How can light (or electromagnetic radiation) travel through a vacuum when there is nothing there to act as a medium, and do so forever in all directions? For example the light coming from a star millions of light years away.
May 2, 2014 · Light may seem to be an exception, leading many to say that light is a wave that can travel through a vacuum with no medium. Light doesn't use EM fields as its medium; light IS an EM (electromagnetic) wave.
There are at least two ways that we know light can travel through a vacuum. The first is by observation of the Sun and other stars. Astronauts have measured the pressure in outer space and found that there is a very good vacuum, much better in fact than that which we can easily make on earth.
Jul 26, 2011 · How does light travel through a vacuum? In a vacuum, light travels in a straight line at a constant speed of approximately 299,792,458 meters per second. This is known as the speed of light and is the fastest speed possible in the universe.
Dec 25, 2011 · Electric and magnetic fields can exist in a vacuum. When an electric field changes, it creates a changing magnetic field, and vice versa. Oscillations between those fields travel at the speed of light through the vacuum. That's the classical view, which does not involve photons.
May 20, 2016 · For instance, how is it that light can be apparently without mass, but still behave as a particle? And how can it behave like a wave and pass through a vacuum, when all other waves require...
Oct 26, 2006 · Light has no charge at all. It consists only of electric and magnetic field, each endlessly recreating the other as the pair zip off through empty space at the speed of light. The fact that light waves can travel in vacuum, and don’t need any material to carry them, was disturbing to the physicists who first studied light in detail.
