A seemingly simple question: What is light?

in science •  7 years ago 

So this may radically challenge your views about the nature of light.

Two days ago I came upon this video which asks the simple question: What is light?

Simple enough, right? We all know that light is electromagnetic radiation in which so called photons travel at the speed of light... Or is it?

I never questioned this assumption because we learn this view in all of our educational institutions and is always stated in popular media or science-fiction.

But here is one quote worth pondering about (it is written in the comment section):

If radio waves are not about 'something traveling', then light is the same, just a different frequency.- Richard Moore

The significance can hardly be overrated. Think of it in this way: The waves in water or the sound that is propagating in air is not transmitting anything. Instead, the water molecules or the air molecules simply start to wiggle and pass this movement on to the next molecule.

In the same way we can think of radio or light "waves": it is a perturbation within a medium (yes, this would indicate that there is such a thing as an ether). But nothing (like photons) are being transmitted!

Interested? Then I recommend watching the video!

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