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- Classical waves transfer energy without transporting matter through the medium. Waves in a pond do not carry the water molecules from place to place; rather the wave's energy travels through the water, leaving the water molecules in place, much like a bug bobbing on top of ripples in water.
science.nasa.gov/ems/02_anatomy
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.
- Why don't electromagnetic waves require a medium?
At the time, even though the solutions of the Maxwell...
- Why don't electromagnetic waves require a medium?
At the time, even though the solutions of the Maxwell equations did not require a medium for the light, physicists used with waves from acoustic to water ones, proposed that the waves of light moved on a medium called luminiferous aether.
- 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...
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.
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!
Aug 10, 2016 · Light travels slower in air than in a vacuum, and even slower in water. As light travels into a different medium, the change in speed bends the light. Different wavelengths of light are slowed at different rates, which causes them to bend at different angles.
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
