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Do not need a medium
- Unlike a sound waves, light waves do not need a medium to pass through, they can travel through a vacuum.
www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/ztmsp4j
Apr 24, 2017 · The question of how light travels through space is one of the perennial mysteries of physics. In modern explanations, it is a wave phenomenon that doesn't need a medium through which to propagate. According to quantum theory, it also behaves as a collection of particles under certain circumstances.
- Light
- Waves
- Particles
- Matter
- Interactions Between Light and Matter
Gamma rays, X-rays, ultraviolet light, visible light (the visible rainbow), infrared light, microwaves, and radio waves are all forms of light, also called electromagnetic radiation. Together, they make up the electromagnetic spectrum. (That’s right, the radio waves that carry music from the station to your radio, the microwaves that heat up your f...
Light behaves like a wave. You are probably familiar with waves: water waves that ripple across a pond, sound waves that vibrate air and ear drums, and seismic (earthquake) waves that cause the ground to shake. These are all mechanical waves—energy that propagates through matter, causing it to move up and down, back and forth, or side to side. Ligh...
Light also behaves like a particle. A particle of light is called a photon. Each individual photon has a very specific amount of energy (no more, no less), which corresponds to its wavelength. Blue photons carry more energy than red photons. Ultraviolet photons carry more energy than infrared photons. Sometimes photons are described as “packets of ...
Matter is the scientific catch-all word for stuff—anything that has mass and takes up space. Matter is made of microscopic particles called atoms. Atoms are made of even smaller, or subatomic, particles known as protons, neutrons, andelectrons. Atoms can combine to formmolecules. Solids, liquids, and gases are all forms of matter. Planets, stars, n...
As you may have gathered, light and matter are intricately linked. Matter gives off light. Every object emits, or gives off, light of one sort or another simply because of its temperature. Glowing objects like stars, galaxies, light bulbs, and lava are all sources of visible light. Cooler objects like planets, dust grains, rocks, trees, animals, an...
Jun 8, 2022 · When someone says light has no medium, they mean there is no physical substance composed of atoms that needs to oscillate. We still need a background medium. If there were no background EM fields, there would be no light (a rather trite and unphysical statement for any physicists reading this).
Mar 5, 2020 · Unlike a wave in water or a sound wave in air, light waves don’t need a physical substance to travel through. They can cross empty space because their medium does not involve physical matter. Scientists Say: Wavelength
Unlike sound waves, light waves can travel through a vacuum close vacuum Empty space, where there is no solid, liquid or gas present. – they do not need a substance to travel through.
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Aug 10, 2016 · Light at shorter wavelengths—blue and violet—is scattered by nitrogen and oxygen as it passes through the atmosphere. Longer wavelengths of light—red and yellow—transmit through the atmosphere.
