If light didn't travel in a straight line, ____?

Question

a) objects would be located somewhere different from where they appear

b) we would never receive sunlight

c) we would not be able to see at all

d) life on earth would not be possible

e) car headlights would still work

Answer 1

a)objects would be located somewhere different from where they appear.

And we can see examples of this because light doesn't always travel in a straight line. Water, for example bends light, making objects in water appear larger then they are, and enabling fish to see predators on the bank at a shallower angle than might otherwise be expected. Differences in air density can bend light, causing mirages, which make objects not visible over the horizon in normal conditions appear closer. And light traveling from distant starts can be bent by objects with a large mass in space, forcing astronomers to correct for this 'gravitational lens affect' using Einsteins equations and theories.

And Kinvadave is right too, because headlights would still work (in fact, the glass in front of them is there specifcally to bend the light in useful directions to create better light dispersal on the road).

Answer 2

Your question isn't thoroughly sparkling. What do you recommend through emitting mild beams at an attitude? What i imagine that you'll even see is, that mild is scattered through air molecules and through smoke and dirt debris interior the air, so that you truly see the air in and around the beam glow. in case you try your attempt in vacuum, you'll see that mild is going instantly, without with the flexibility to make certain the beam in any respect till you seem properly into it. in accordance to Einstein's idea of typical relativity a instantly line is defined through the path that mild takes interior the curved area. after we note that mild is bent through gravity, we truly see what a curved area does with a instantly line in that area. that is like defining the equator to be a instantly line on the floor of the globe: walk instantly ahead on the floor and also you may finally end up the position you all started.

Answer 3

well, according to quantum mechanics and the sum over paths integrals then technically speaking light goes from A to B in all possible routes. Its just that its CONSIDERABLY more likely (I really mean it when i say considerably here) to go in a straight line than it is to go to C first. Even if it is a particularly sunny day and it happends to like swimming. In a sense, all the other routes "cancel" each other out similar to the idea of interence. For those of you who like this kind of stuff have a look at QED by Feynmann.

Answer 4

f) that depends on the trajectory the light would travel.

Actually, every day we face the effects of light not traveling by a straight line. For example, when you pour water into a glass, you see refracted light, it doesn't travel by a straight line between the objects underwater and your eye. Thus when you put a spoon inside a glass, you see it as if it's broken (or bent).

Answer 5

A is the answer but E is also correct.
Headlights are light emitters and would still emit light. They wouldn't be effective sending light in the wrong direction but nevertheless they would function

Answer 6

Actually, light does not travel in a straight line, it actually travels in waves. Nice try anyways.

Answer 7

it's a question, see the question mark?
but light would still be able to reach us right?
hmm

Answer 8

i have a doubt over (d)

all others are true

Answer 9

u asking or telling?

Answer 10

a,b,c,d are true; e is false