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Aug 12, 2012 · And so, that suggests there is no medium through which light travels. Dominic - This has to do with two theories of physics called quantum mechanics and special relativity. And the question that was troubling physicists about 100 years ago was whether light is a particle or a wave. The problem is, you can describe some properties of light as ...
We know that light doesn't need a medium through which to travel because the speed of light is experimentally constant: independent of the movement of the source or detector or the direction in which it travels. Light contrasts with sound, which travels through the air (or some other material medium).
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). Hope that clears things up
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. For most macroscopic purposes, though, its behavior can be described by treating it as a wave ...
Mar 27, 2012 · Finally, to answer perhaps what you really meant, how does the light bulb or whatever contain the field, the answer is it doesn't exactly at first, but turning on the current of electricity that flows through the filament produces motions in the electrons in the atoms in the filament at just the right speeds so that that motion of the electricity in the atoms generates a magnetic field and ...
Mar 15, 2024 · Facts & FAQ. Light is such a fundamental part of our lives. From the moment we’re born, we are showered with all kinds of electromagnetic radiation, both colorful, and invisible. Light travels through the vacuum of space at 186,828 miles per second as transverse waves, outside of any material or medium, because photons—the particles that ...
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The fields vibrate at right angles to the direction of movement of the wave, and at right angles to each other. Because light has both electric and magnetic fields, it's also referred to as electromagnetic radiation. Electromagnetic radiation doesn't need a medium to travel through, and, when it's traveling in a vacuum, moves at 186,000 miles ...