2006-06-18 11:03:33 · 8 answers · asked by Darth Hjalmar (Green) 2 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
When light moves from transmission in one medium to another it could be said to bend. for example light in a prism can move and bend and a series of prisms can cause light to return to its source by bending. Light traveling in a vacuum is theorized to remain in a straight line. However even a vacuum is perforated by other forces such as the strong nuclear, weak nuclear and gravitational forces. Therefore it is impossible to test the theory that light moves in a straight line. Regardless, light does move in a straight line by theory unless acted on by some force and that is acceptable to me.
Space however is not without uncontrolled forces and therefore there is a remotely small chance that out of the billions of streams of light emitted from earth some light may return to its source.
2006-06-25 08:01:39 · answer #1 · answered by Give me Liberty 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Just a guess here, but, just because light bends doesn't necessarily mean that it will bend in the shape of a perfect circle, or will somehow, by all the bending it does, necessarily come back to it's source. But then, I'm just a layman with no in-depth training in whatever science needed to speak more intelligently. Just a guess. I'll be interested in reading what other responders say. God Bless you.
2006-06-18 18:09:36 · answer #2 · answered by ? 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Light only bends when it encounters a matter or energy that exerts enough force on it to make it bend, but then it goes in a straight line after it passes that point. So it would have to encounter enough of those things at the right angles to make it go in essentially a circle. It would have the effect of a room of mirrors. It's possible, but not very common.
2006-06-18 18:08:18 · answer #3 · answered by cynicusprime 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Light doesn't bend, it can BE bent. There's a big difference. It can be bent several times to return to it's source, but by itself it will continue in a straight line outward from the source.
2006-06-18 18:07:04 · answer #4 · answered by PuterPrsn 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
light can be bent, but only by extreme gravitational pull. It would then be theoritically possible for llight to eventually return to its source. This is interesting because if that were true then how would we know that the night sky we were looking at was composed of billions of different stars and not actually just reflections of the same.
2006-06-18 18:10:07 · answer #5 · answered by jbkuhne 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
In my opinion it will not.
The light will eventually hit something and get absorbed.
Light from our sun will hit a plant and has no way to return to the sun.
If I am in space and fire a gun that bullet will keep going in a straight line just like light unless gravity acts upon it or it hits something.
Hopefully that helped.
If you wanna talk about this further feel free to contact me on YIM
Chris
2006-06-18 18:14:50 · answer #6 · answered by the_fiendish_shadow 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
One day when the Universe collapses on itself once again(only in theory), the light you speak of will probably return to its source[at the instance or when it happens again]; but for now its not very likely to return unless someone is out there actively reflecting it back to its origin. (Not likely, but possible nethertheless)
2006-06-18 18:10:02 · answer #7 · answered by rayek_cutter 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
yes, but as it moves the beam deteriorates so it will not be nearly as strong.
2006-06-18 18:09:18 · answer #8 · answered by m-man 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋