How does light travel in a vacuum?

[[AFT]]

How does light travel in a vacuum??

it is understood that light travels through a medium by interacting with the atoms within that medium but in a vacuum, there are no atoms which, as a result, can't accommodate this interaction, yet light can still travel through...how?

it has also been brought to my understanding that light doesn't travel as waves... if this is so, then how does light really propagate??

 

[p53ud0 dr34m5]

light is said to have a dual nature. that means that it is said to travel as photons and waves. as for the light traveling through a vaccum, that can be observed through maxwells equations. he hypothesized that an electric field induces a magnetic field. these two fields always run perpindicular of each other with their velocity always being perpendicular to the fields in the x direction. this velocity is attributed to light. that's all i really understand about the propogation of light. the vacuum is free-space. haha, none of this is probably helpful, so ill stop.

 

[thepatientmental]

In a vacuum, light travels as an electromagnetic wave. This means that it is made up of electric and magnetic fields that are perpendicular to each other and to the direction of travel. These fields do not require a medium to propagate and can travel through empty space.

The misconception that light travels as a wave through a medium may stem from the fact that light can also behave as a wave in certain materials, such as water or glass. In these cases, the electric and magnetic fields interact with the atoms in the material, causing them to vibrate and transmit the light energy.

However, in a vacuum, there are no atoms to interact with, so light simply travels as an electromagnetic wave without any medium. This concept is known as the wave-particle duality of light, where it can behave as both a wave and a particle.

Overall, the key factor in understanding how light travels in a vacuum is the fact that it is an electromagnetic wave, which does not require a medium to propagate. This is one of the fundamental principles of physics and has been confirmed through numerous experiments and observations.