(exclude reflection and refraction)
2007-07-27 21:11:42 · 9 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
Light is not bent by gravity. It is simply following the shortest path between two points in the curved space around some material body (which incidentally includes black holes). But then if you consider that space is not flat (or so current theories would have us believe), then light is always "bent" just like distances on the surface of a sphere, of which the earth is an approximation. They appear flat over short distances because the curvature is so small. Space is the same way. Over short distances it appears to be flat but if you could make very precise measurements you would be able to tell that it is not. Perhaps space has variable local geometries and there are regions that are truly flat, I don't know. So my answer would be is that it is always bent because that is the nature of the space that we live in (again with the reservation that this statement is based on current theories on the large scale structure of the universe).
2007-07-27 21:27:10 · answer #1 · answered by Captain Mephisto 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Electric fields contribute to the mass-energy tensor, so they can bend light as a gravitational effect.
2007-07-31 21:03:33 · answer #2 · answered by supastremph 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
any obstruction in light's path can make it bent
2007-07-27 22:01:03 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
another light wave
2007-07-27 21:14:45 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
clouds black holes that can swallow light completely
2007-07-27 21:14:59 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
acceleration
2007-07-27 21:16:03 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
a mirror?
2007-07-27 21:15:23 · answer #7 · answered by pawpawpaw 3 · 0⤊ 2⤋
your moms booty! :D
2007-07-27 21:20:17 · answer #8 · answered by no_way_jose_15960 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
My ENORMOUSLY fat ***!!!
2007-07-27 21:14:00 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋