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Gravity bends light, i know that thats true, but how? if light cannot be slowed in a vacuum, how can it be bent without being slowed?

2007-12-04 05:21:13 · 3 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics Physics

3 answers

Gravity distorts 4 dimensional spacetime, and makes the shortest path for light a geodesic, rather than a straight line like in 3D.
Gravity doesnt slow light, it changes what the shortest path is, and light always follows the shortest path.

2007-12-04 05:28:58 · answer #1 · answered by brownian_dogma 4 · 0 0

Imagine the Sun and the Earth on a rubber sheet. The depression in the sheet from the Sun would be much greater than the depression in the sheet from the Earth because of the greater differences in mass. Gravity is directly proportional to the mass of great objects. Light coming from behind the Sun would tend to be pulled in towards the Sun deflecting the light slightly, altering it's path at the gravity well of the Sun caused by the immense weight of the Sun resting in the well of the rubber sheet warping the geometry. The gravity well of the Earth would deflect the light although not to the same degree as the Sun.

2007-12-04 13:49:42 · answer #2 · answered by BB 7 · 0 0

Not quite - general relativity tells us that gravity bends space. Light travels straight through space; if the space is bent, it makes the light look bent, even though it isn't.

2007-12-04 13:28:42 · answer #3 · answered by Gary H 6 · 1 0

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