How do electromagnetic waves travel through a vacuum?

Answer 1

Michelson Moreley were able to observe that the Aether no longer has a reason for being in discussion of movement of the photon. The elecromagnetic wave is an energy packet with velocity c, emitted from a source that disturbs (connects to photons) that are perpendicular to the path by disturbing the E and B fields at those photons. Likely, a vacuum is a construct and in terms of rest mass energy photons have a mass and follow the geodesics of masses that they are proximate to, mass of the sun bends the light from stars that pass near on geodesics (general relativity) Usually it is enough to discuss Quantum Electrodynamics regarding how does a photon interact with other particles and how is that interaction propogated, but it is discussed in terms of particles interacting in a cascade fashion to create other particles with other energies and the fields E and B are removed from the discussion.

The similarity between travel of a transverse water wave and light breaks down as the disturbance is an oscillation in water density in the direction of travel as well as height of the water perpendicular to that direction of travel. This is not the case for a photon. A pressure wave shows a disturbance in the density of the media in the direction of travel. We don't see this for plane wave electromagnetic disturbances.

LIGO has now observed gravitational wave disturbances associated to contact between large gravity disturbances interacting. How does a graviton travel? Vacuum as was Aether may be a misinterpretation for the makeup of space.The Higgs boson observed mass might likely have something to do with how dark matter interacts with EM waves

Maxwells equations and boundary conditions for parallel wave disturbances yield periodic solutions for the disturbance equation that are perpendicular to the direction of propogation and travel at velocity c on taking into account the permitivity of free space and magnetic susceptability of free space. we see these as e(i K dot x) for K and x vectors...K we call a wave number so the K dot x is unitless and behaves as a phase angle for a phasor. But all of this is a construct to predict effect and does not give a mechanism for the movement.

Answer 2

Electricomagnetic waves travel through a vacuum by virtue of not being (mechanical) waves as understood in the classical sense (e.g. water waves, sound waves, etc...), so electromagnetic waves do not require a medium to propagate (i.e. these waves don’t need matter in order to travel). Electromagnetic waves are essentially an oscillation of an electric field coupled with a perpendicular magnetic field.

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Michael Mount