I disagree that light travels in straight lines!?

Question

If light travels in straight lines, then there would be gaps left as the source of light emits light beams at an angle and therefore the space in between the angle would be left empty yet we do not see this empty space why is this.

Answer 1

Your question is not clear. It is understood in different ways.

I understand like this.

From a source of light we draw straight lines to represent the paths of light rays in outer space.

In a particular interval of time, the rays would have traveled a distance R from the source.

Hence after that time the rays will meet the surface of a sphere of radius R.

Thus there will be as many points as there are number of rays on the surface of the sphere.

Hence there will be areas on the sphere where the rays do no fall.

But in practice no such effect is observed. Hence light rays cannot travel in straight line.

If this is your question, then the answer is simple.

In the space where you do think that there is no light ray, mark a point there, and join the point to the source.

That is the ray that you have omitted to observe or to draw.

You can draw infinite number of rays like this.

By this way you can see that there is no empty space in which there is no light from a point source of light.

By the by, it is the reason that the intensity of light diminishes as the distance from the source is increased.

Answer 2

Your question is not completely clear. What do you mean by emitting light beams at an angle?

What I think that you may see is, that light is scattered by air molecules and by smoke and dust particles in the air, so you actually see the air in and around the beam glow.
If you try your experiment in vacuum, you'll see that light goes straight, without being able to see the beam at all until you look right into it.


According to Einstein's theory of general relativity a straight line is defined by the path that light takes in the curved space.
When we observe that light is bent by gravity, we actually see what a curved space does with a straight line in that space. It is like defining the equator to be a straight line on the surface of the globe: Walk straight forward on the surface and you'll end up where you started.

Answer 3

Light travels in strainght lines, but it also scatters.
Light in outer space can be bent by gravity, or even sucked up by a black hole.

Do this experiment. Take a flashlight and shine it through a toilet paper roll, and aim it at a wall about 6 feet away. The light will bounce around in the roll and come out at angles to the tube as it heads for the wall. The spot on the wall will be bigger than the hole in the roll. You can minimize the spread of the spot on the wall by using a longer tube (like from a roll of paper towels), or by moving it closer to the wall.

This is the same effect a shotgun shell's pellets exhibit when fired from the gun. A sawed off barrel allows the pettets to spread faster than a full-length barrel. But either way, the pattern of the shot is bigger than the bore of the barrel, and gets ever more spread out the further the end of the barrel is from the target.

Answer 4

not really, because the source emits countless light beams. So the angles between each two beams was too small that we assume that there is no angle

further more, If light didn't travel un straight line, you could see your own mouth, hair without using a mirror

Answer 5

Remember a couple months ago when that neutrino broke the speed of light? I am pretty sure that has not been debunked yet. That supposedly would have taken all the energy in the universe had Relativity been 100% correct. Yet somehow humans were able to produce enough energy to break the speed of light. This is a very tiny amount of energy when compared to the rest of the universe. I believe that since technology keeps improving that light travel will be possible. When you are talking about rapid travel to the moon, did you include the time it takes to accelerate to the speed of light?

Answer 6

I'll answer the best I can, so long as I understand your question (I'm sorry to be nitpicky, but punctuation would've helped) :D

When light light is emitted in beams, it is reflected off of other surfaces, whether the other surfaces are glass lenses from the light-emitting source, water particles in the air, or some other surface.

Answer 7

Light does not travel in a straight line, Light waves, or photons if you want to think of them that way, are a mutual interaction between an electric and a magnetic field. As the electric field increases in strength the magnetic field decreases in strength. Likewise as the electric field decreases the magnetic field increases. These two waves oscillate in planes that are perpendicular to each other.

These waves are sinusoidal and are dependent on position and time. As time goes on, these waves propagate in a certain direction. This direction is given by a vector called the Poynting vector. This vector is orthogonal to both the electric and magnetic fields. This vector, to our current knowledge, goes in a straight line.

Answer 8

Imagine you are walking into a room which spirals in on itself.

As you walk in, there is plenty of light to see your surroundings. As you venture deeper, the light becomes dimmer until there is finally darkness.

Light will bounce off of virtually every object, but its intensity will fade with each new bounce (baring in mind distance as well).

Entering a cave (even one which is totally straight) produces the same effect. The deeper you go, the less light.

If you were at the bottom of a deep well, you would see the stars, just like during the night-time hours.

Does this help or have I helped to totally confuse you?

The Ol' Sasquatch Ü

Answer 9

Light is an electromagnetic wave so it doesn't travel in a strait line, the wave does. Plus you can't see light. You can only see what absorbs light. If you could see the light waves then you would only see a bright white blur when you opened your eyes. Imagine being in a tank of white paint and opening your eyes. As light is absorbed by a material you see the different wave lengths of light for that particular color. All the other wave length are reflected off. This is why a black car gets hotter than a white car. Black absorbs most light where white reflects most light.

Answer 10

Think of a flashlight, the light travels in a straight line and cannot bend by itself, in order to bend the light, or make it angle, you would have to reflect, or refract the light, thus making it able to bend. If you used a mirror to reflect the light of the flashlight, then you could bend the light to accomplish what you are saying.