Sunday, January 1, 2017

electric current - Why does vacuum have a nonzero characteristic impedance towards electromagnetic radiation?


On Wikipedia, the impedance of free space Z0 is defined as square root of the ratio of the permeability of free space μ0 to the permittivity of free space ϵ0, i.e. Z0=μ0/ϵ0.

The value is approximately 377 Ohms.


Now impedance is described as an impeding effect to flow of something, it makes more sense for electric current travelling in a wire where the characteristic impedance of the line (as the line consists of capacitance and inductance per unit length) prevents the flow of AC/DC flow.


Why in the world does free space have a characteristic impedance? That makes no sense to me. Wires makes a lot of sense, but free space having 377 ohm of impedance is too much and not clear why such a value exists.




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