How do waves travel in vacuum? Waves not in vacuum travel as a result of pressure difference, like in water or in air or any other mass, but how do waves travel if there is nothing to carry them?
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SoPtAmEr
ANSWERS: 1
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That's exactly the question that physicists were asking in the late 1800s, after Maxwell unified electricity and magnetism with his famous set of equations, which also predicted electromagnetic waves. This in turn led to the hypothesis that there exists a 'luminiferous ether' pervading all of space, which 'wiggles' to carry electromagnetic waves. No evidence, however, ever turned up for ether, especially after the famous Michaelson-Morley experiment. The view shifted to FIELD theories, in which the electric and magnetic fields were seen to exist in a vacuum by themselves, requiring no supporting medium. Einstein clarified some of the details, and this remains the prevailing view today. Great question!
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