• Nougat
    link
    fedilink
    -61 month ago

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

    • @huginn@feddit.it
      link
      fedilink
      English
      101 month ago

      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
        link
        fedilink
        -21 month ago

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

        • @huginn@feddit.it
          link
          fedilink
          English
          51 month ago

          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
            link
            fedilink
            11 month ago

            Don’t materials also need to exist in space?