How does light travel?
First of all, to learn how light travels,we most know what light is. We have been learning from our schools that, light is a kind of energy which gives the sensation of vision. It's true that due to light we see the things, light coming from the sun reflect from a particular thing and then return to our eye, then only we can recognize the object. So, broadly, what is light? Light is a wave and yes, light is also a particle. Light shows both wave and particle nature. Light is a transverse wave and according to Einstein, it contains photon as a particle or a quanta. As light is a wave, it is a source of energy. According to Planck's the energy of wave is given by,
 |
| EM Wave |
E = hf
where,
h ---> Planck's Constant
f ---> frequency
So light is a form of energy. Albert Einstein and also Millikan's experiment proved that light consists of particle called photons. Photon is a particle that has no rest mass, meaning that it is always in motion. Photon also travels in a straight path with the light with the speed of 3 x 10^8 .
So, now let's move on to the question. So, how does light travel? light is a transverse wave as well as an electromagnetic wave and electromagnetic wave is the wave in which electric field and magnetic field propagate perpendicularly with each other in a forward direction. It means that neither electric field nor magnetic field disturb the path of light. So, light doesn't require a medium to travel. Light travels from the sun to the earth without the medium as there is vacuum in the space. Light is, moreover, a wave then merely a particle. So, with this we can conclude that light is a transverse wave and an electromagnetic wave which moves in a forward direction such that the electric field and magnetic field are always perpendicular to each other and direction of propagation is also a perpendicular to both the fields.
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