Doesn’t a wave need a medium to travel through?
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they are their own medium
It travels through the vacuum of space as photons.
Light waves travel through the vacuum (nothing there) without hindrance. When they travel through an atmosphere or water they will be diffused (scattered) somewhat and bent to change their direction.
They travel through „empty” space. There is no meduim of tramission for photons.
However, if it will make it a little easier…just remember that the photon of energy and the space through which it is travelling are exactly the same thing. You, yourself, are made out of the same stuff as the photon and the space between you and other objects.
It has a medium to travel through: it’s called „the vacuum”. Unlike the vacuum of the 17th, 18th and19th century, the modern term does not imply anything empty. Instead physicists are talking about the vacuum that is filled with waves, particles and quantum mechanical phenomena.
So indeed, in the 19th century the question would have made sense. Today it simply misses to use the term in its correct meaning.
Sound waves need a medium, light does not. That is why no one can hear you scream in space. MMMUUUUAAAAGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!