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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. Light is observed as traveling at velocity v=c, according to the second postulate of special relativity. But according to ...
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. The second is through observations on earth.
- Theory of Light in The 19th Century
- Double-Slit Experiment
- Electromagnetism and Special Relativity
- Einstein and The Photon
- Wave-Particle Duality
During the Scientific Revolution, scientists began moving away from Aristotelian scientific theories that had been seen as accepted canon for centuries. This included rejecting Aristotle's theory of light, which viewed it as being a disturbance in the air (one of his four "elements" that composed matter), and embracing the more mechanistic view tha...
By the early 19th century, scientists began to break with corpuscular theory. This was due in part to the fact that corpuscular theory failed to adequately explain the diffraction, interference and polarization of light, but was also because of various experiments that seemed to confirm the still-competing view that light behaved as a wave. The mos...
Prior to the 19th and 20th centuries, the speed of light had already been determined. The first recorded measurements were performed by Danish astronomer Ole Rømer, who demonstrated in 1676 using light measurements from Jupiter's moon Io to show that light travels at a finite speed (rather than instantaneously). By the late 19th century, James Cler...
In 1905, Einstein also helped to resolve a great deal of confusion surrounding the behavior of electromagnetic radiation when he proposed that electrons are emitted from atoms when they absorb energy from light. Known as the photoelectric effect, Einstein based his idea on Planck's earlier work with "black bodies" – materials that absorb electromag...
Subsequent theories on the behavior of light would further refine this idea, which included French physicist Louis-Victor de Broglie calculating the wavelength at which light functioned. This was followed by Heisenberg's "uncertainty principle" (which stated that measuring the position of a photon accurately would disturb measurements of it momentu...
- How far does light go? how long does light go. - Jason (age 11) A: Hi Jason, Light just keeps going and going until it bumps into something.
- less than one photon? Can light intensity reduce to a level where it's energy is less than 1 photon (probably after travelling an almost infinite distance from a point source)?
- stars too far away to see? does there is any star that we can can't get it's light because of itis farness?...... sorry with having any problems in my English gramer, my English language is not good enough.
- light going out to space. If we are reflections of light, does that reflection make it out into space and keeps traveling til its asorbed.
Unlike sound, light can travel through a vacuum — it doesn't need a medium.It can travel through transparent materials such as glass, water, and air. (A material light can't travel through is said to be opaque.) In a vacuum, light travels with speed 3.00 x 10 8 m/sec.This speed is given the symbol c. In a transparent medium, light slows down ...
Jul 26, 2011 · In summary: Thanks for helping me understand this.In summary, light travels between a magnetic field and electric field at 90 degrees to each other. This oscillation propagates according to Maxwell's equations. A vacuum means devoid of mass and this is why there is an electromagnetic field present in vacuum.
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May 13, 2003 · Can light travel through a vacuum? Yes, light can travel through a vacuum. A vacuum is an area devoid of matter, including air molecules, which are usually responsible for scattering and absorbing light. Therefore, in a vacuum, light can travel unobstructed in a straight line. 2.
