this post was submitted on 12 Oct 2024
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[–] Clent@lemmy.world 9 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

You area conflating auditory waves with radio waves.

These are very much not the same thing. Sound waves require a medium while radio waves do not.

Radio waves travel vast distances through space while sound doesn't travel at all.

[–] Nougat@fedia.io -5 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

Space is a medium, as exemplified by the fact that light curves around massive objects, because the space is curved.

[–] huginn@feddit.it 10 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

Space isn't a medium because mediums have privileged frames of reference.

You're talking about spacetime which is a field, not a medium.

[–] Nougat@fedia.io -3 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

So you’re saying that light can travel through not-space?

[–] huginn@feddit.it 5 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

Light is also not "stuff" - it's electromagnetic radiation. It's by the unprivileged intertial frame of reference that we define the speed of light. Light's speed is the speed at which it travels unimpeded through the spacetime "field". Additionally light does not accelerate or change speed in any way while traveling in that frame.

Unless you're asking if light travels through things that are not the field known as the spacetime continuum in which case yes: light travels (and changes speed) through all sorts of materials. Like glass.

[–] Nougat@fedia.io 1 points 13 hours ago

Don't materials also need to exist in space?