If sound waves travel by pushing particles back and forth, then how exactly do electromagnetic/radio waves travel through the vacuum of space and dense matter? Are they emitting… stuff? Or is there some… stuff even in the empty space that they push?
In: Physics
A photon is a oscillation in the electric and magnetic field. These oscillations are at right angles to each other and not in phase with each other. The changing electric and magnetic fields then generate each other with no medium required anymore than your car needs a medium to move forward. Once the photon is emitted, it oscillates like a tiny pendulum as it moves along until it finds another charged particle to transfer its momentum to.
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