Vacuum = Medium? (1 Viewer)

[webby234]

The only thing that is always constant is the speed of light.

It is dependant on the refractive index of the substance - the metre is the distance light can travel in 1/c seconds in a vacuum

 

[Raginsheep]

A good point to start is to define what exactally is a medium.

 

[insert-username]

Medium - "An intervening substance through which signals can travel as a means for communication".

So, using that, vacuum is not a medium since it is not a substance - it is the lack of substance and matter.


I_F

 

[Mono!]

The aether was a way for scientist of the day to explain how light travels at the time em waves had juts been detected plsu every other wave that was known at the time needed a medium

 

[eX-Bhai]

My physics teacher argued that a vacuum could be considered as a medium because i medium does not necessarily mean that an energy source must "depend" on it to be transmitted, it can just be described as "light travelling through space, the medium". But that's just his point of view.

Thats exactly what I was thinking and hence the catalyst behind this question.

 

[shinji]

as mono said ... aether was the supposed "medium" in which occupied space & was a medium for light.

but it was proved wrong by some experiment that ... did stuff. forgot the experiment. i think it was the michaelson-dorsely? experiment.

and yerh ....

 

[YBK]

Is a vacuum classified as a medium?.. cauz im like totally lost about this Aether stuff.. if it isnt a medium, then it all makes sense..

Vacuum is not a medium, at least I don't think.

Aether is a medium, but that is not really there. It's been proven wrong by morison experiment...