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Aug 10, 2016 · Water waves are formed by vibrations in a liquid and sound waves are formed by vibrations in a gas (air). These mechanical waves travel through a medium by causing the molecules to bump into each other, like falling dominoes transferring energy from one to the next.
Shear or transverse waves cannot travel through a liquid and are not transmitted through Earth’s core. In contrast, compression or longitudinal waves can pass through a liquid and they do go through the core.
Mar 5, 2020 · Light waves travel across the universe, allowing us to see distant stars. And every sound we hear is a wave. So what do all these different waves have in common? A wave is a disturbance that moves energy from one place to another. Only energy — not matter — is transferred as a wave moves.
- Theory of Light in the 19th Century: During the Scientific Revolution, scientists began moving away from Aristotelian scientific theories that had been seen as accepted canon for centuries.
- Double-Slit Experiment: 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.
- Electromagnetism and Special Relativity: 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).
- Einstein and the Photon: 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.
Electromagnetic waves can travel through a vacuum at the speed of light, v = c = 2.99792458 × 108 m/s. v = c = 2.99792458 × 10 8 m/s. For example, light from distant stars travels through the vacuum of space and reaches Earth.
May 24, 2024 · But we also know that we can see light from the sun, moon, and stars, which means that light waves can travel through the vacuum of space. Unlike every other wave we have seen, it doesn't require any medium at all! So what do we use as the "displacement" for our wave function?
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Water waves require water to travel in. The sound waves we hear, to give another example, are pressure disturbances that require air to travel though. But electromagnetic waves do not require water or air: the fields generate each other and so can move through a vacuum (such as outer space).
