There are no molecules of air or anything else in a vacuum. Like all forms of electromagnetic waves, light can travel through empty space, as well as through matter.
How can light travel?
Light can travel in three ways from a source to another location: (1)
directly from the source through empty space
; (2) through various media; (3) after being reflected from a mirror.
How does light move through the air?
Light travels as a wave
. But unlike sound waves or water waves, it does not need any matter or material to carry its energy along. This means that light can travel through a vacuum? a completely airless space.
Can light travel forever?
Light is an electromagnetic wave that doesn't need a medium to propagate. The strength of the wave, however, can get weaker with the distance, but
as long as nothing absorbs it, the light keeps on travelling forever
.
What is light made of?
Light is made of
particles called photons
, bundles of the electromagnetic field that carry a specific amount of energy. With sufficiently sensitive experiments, you can count photons or even perform measurements on a single one. Researchers have even frozen light temporarily.
Why is space dark?
Because space is a near-perfect vacuum — meaning it has exceedingly few particles — there's virtually nothing in the space between stars and planets to scatter light to our eyes
. And with no light reaching the eyes, they see black. —What color is the sunset on other planets?
Does light disappear?
Light is made up of particles called photons that travel like waves. Unless they interact with other particles (objects), there is nothing to stop them. Unlike some types of particles,
they do not decay
, meaning that they do not spontaneously turn into other types of particles.
Can light be absorbed?
Absorption of light
Waves can be absorbed at the boundary between two different materials
. When waves are absorbed by a surface, the energy of the wave is transferred to the particles in the surface. This will usually increase the internal energy of the particles.
How does light travel through water?
When light that is traveling through the air hits water,
some of the light is reflected off the water. The rest of the light passes through the water but it bends (or refracts) as it enters the water
. The same thing happens when light hits glass or any other transparent material.
Which of the following light can travel?
Light can travel
in a vacuum
because the light is electromagnetic in nature which requires no medium as electric fields and magnetic fields constantly generate each other as the wave propagates. Sound waves require a medium to travel.
Does light stop in space?
In empty space, the wave does not dissipate (grow smaller) no matter how far it travels
, because the wave is not interacting with anything else. This is why light from distant stars can travel through space for billions of light-years and still reach us on earth.
Is light always moving?
Light, no matter how high-or-low in energy,
always moves at the speed of light
, so long as it's traveling through the vacuum of empty space. Nothing you do to your own motion or to the light's motion will change that speed.
Does sound ever stop traveling?
Due to that friction, the wave's amplitude, or height, get smaller and smaller until it eventually dissipates. That is slowly fades out, due to friction in the air. Therefore, to answer the question, sound waves only have a limited amount of time to travel, but
yes, in fact they do travel after being emitted
.
Is light a wave?
Light Is a Wave
– an Electromagnetic Wave!
How is a light created?
Light is made up of photons, which are like tiny packets of energy.
When an object's atoms heat up, photon are produced from the movement of atoms
. The hotter the object, the more photons are produced.
What color is the light?
White light
is a combination of all colors in the color spectrum. It has all the colors of the rainbow. Combining primary colors of light like red, blue, and green creates secondary colors: yellow, cyan, and magenta. All other colors can be broken down into different combinations of the three primary colors.
How cold is space?
Hot things move quickly, cold things very slowly. If atoms come to a complete stop, they are at absolute zero. Space is just above that,
at an average temperature of 2.7 Kelvin (about minus 455 degrees Fahrenheit)
.
Why can't you see the sun in space?
In space or on the Moon
there is no atmosphere to scatter light
. The light from the sun travels a straight line without scattering and all the colors stay together. Looking toward the sun we thus see a brilliant white light while looking away we would see only the darkness of empty space.
Will a dead body decompose in space?
Halting decomposition
And bacteria from the gut would still devour the soft tissues
. But these bacteria need oxygen to function properly and so limited supplies of air would significantly slow down the process.
How far a light can travel?
Light is able to travel
infinite distance
, unless it is blocked by some obstacle. This is because according to the special theory of relativity, time doesn't flow for anything that travels with the speed of light, and the only thing in the universe which can achieve this much speed is light itself.
Does light have mass?
Light has no mass
so it also has no energy according to Einstein, but how can sunlight warm the earth without energy? Light indeed carries energy via its momentum despite having no mass.
Why is speed of light not infinite?
That something, the universal conversion factor, is the speed of light. The reason that it is limited is simply the fact that
a finite amount of space is equivalent to a finite amount of time
.
What objects can absorb light?
Opaque Objects
The opaque objects such as wood, coal, organic matter, etc. form the perfect example of objects that are capable of absorbing light radiations.
Does water absorb light?
Water absorbs almost all of the infrared energy from sunlight within 10 centimeters of the surface
. In this very shallow layer light energy is converted to heat, which can raise the water temperature and cause some the water to evaporate.
What is an absorption of light?
Light absorption is
a process by which light is absorbed and converted into energy
. An example of this process is photosynthesis in plants. However, light absorption doesn't occur exclusively in plants, but in all creatures/inorganic substances.
