Reflection occurs when waves bounce back from a surface that they cannot pass through. Refraction occurs when waves bend as they enter a new medium at an angle and start traveling at a different speed. Diffraction occurs when waves spread out as they travel around obstacles or through openings in obstacles.

All waves behave in certain characteristic ways. They can undergo refraction, reflection, interference and diffraction. These basic properties define the behaviour of a wave – anything that reflects, refracts, diffracts and interferes is labelled a wave.

When a light wave encounters an object, they are either transmitted, reflected, absorbed, refracted, polarized, diffracted, or scattered depending on the composition of the object and the wavelength of the light.

Electromagnetic radiation is a type of energy that is commonly known as light. Generally speaking, we say that light travels in waves, and all electromagnetic radiation travels at the same speed which is about 3.0 * 108 meters per second through a vacuum.

Electromagnetic waves are members of a family of waves with common properties called the electromagnetic spectrum….Common properties

• are transverse waves;
• can travel through a vacuum ;
• travel at exactly the same speed in a vacuum, the speed of light, 300,000,000 m/s.

Electromagnetic waves are created by the vibration of an electric charge. This vibration creates a wave which has both an electric and a magnetic component. An electromagnetic wave transports its energy through a vacuum at a speed of 3.00 x 108 m/s (a speed value commonly represented by the symbol c).

Sound waves

Matter wave can neither leave the particle nor can they move in vacuum.

In contrast, light waves can travel through a vacuum, and do not require a medium. In empty space, the wave does not dissipate (grow smaller) no matter how far it travels, because the wave is not interacting with anything else. In this case, some light is absorbed and lost as heat, just like sound.

Light waves do not need a medium in which to travel but sound waves do. Explain that unlike sound, light waves travel fastest through a vacuum and air, and slower through other materials such as glass or water.

A neutrino is a subatomic particle that is very similar to an electron, but has no electrical charge and a very small mass, which might even be zero. Neutrinos are one of the most abundant particles in the universe. Because they have very little interaction with matter, however, they are incredibly difficult to detect.

Hence, an object moving at the speed of light through space experiences no time at all or in other words is frozen in time. So, the real reason why we can’t move faster than the speed of light is that once we’re moving entirely through space, there’s no more speed to be gained.

Tachyons have never been found in experiments as real particles traveling through the vacuum, but we predict theoretically that tachyon-like objects exist as faster-than-light ‘quasiparticles’ moving through laser-like media.

Albert Einstein