If light is a paritical, would it not be affected by gravity? Whos right here, Einstien or Newton?

CTR

G-W

You're post confused me... Are you saying light should be affected by gravity? Or it shouldn't be?

Because correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Einstein say light IS bent by gravity?

Light is affected by gravity, My post about black holes talks about the gravitaional pull of a blackhole pulling in light particles. the gravity of the sun distorts the stars behind it so light is affected by gravity but because of it being of so little mass it isnt majorly affected by gravity!

So light has mass, therefor it is a particle. My question is, does a particle exist with less mass than light? If so could it travel faster?

Wondered the same thing myself. I'm not sure!

I think the way that Einstein ment it, gravity effects space, space effects light.

Large gravitational fields distort space to some degree. A light beam traveling along a vector that passes through this distorted space will travel straight acording to it's own veiw of space. From the outside though it will apear to curve, because from the outside the distortion isn't as apparent.

Hope you guys understand that.

I could have swan einstien said light travels in a strait line... my bad sorry guys.

CTR

Doesnt light travel the path of least resistance so to speak?

First of all light is a beam of energy consisting of photons, photons are NOT particles and DO NOT have mass (otherwise they would not be able to travel at the speed of light). Light can be bent by gravity.

Light does travel in a straight line, it is space that is curved.

I know, it's a hard concept to wrap your mind around.

I was told it has some mass, just not much at all. I thought it didnt really have to straight just whatever path seemed easiest to pass. usually straight but sometime it curves to get a smoother path so to speak

Light doesnt have its own particles its like a multi-sided reflection through particles in the air. Gravity doesnt bend light but effects the particles light effects. So it would bend or pull down particles in the air. My statment isn't 100% accurate.

Photons are SPECIAL. They are mass at the speed of light.

Light is light, it is neither a particle or wave. It merely exhibits qualities of both at different times. From what I know, light has no mass.

As Prometheus has said, mass affects space, it bends it. That's gravity. What once was straight now is curved.

This all gets into different sections of geometry more advanced than Euclidiean(sp?).

Einstein is right (from what we know).

the way i understood it, einstein said that light can be affected by gravity, and he even had an experiment to prove it.

Einstein had an prediction about light and gravity- he said that if you traveled in space at the speed of light and shined a light (perpendicular to the direction of travel) that the point at which you could see the light's beam on a surface opposite the source would be lower than the source itself.
As to light being a wave or particles i think that einstein (or maybe some other guy) proved that light is made up of particals by shining a light at a sensor from 100 metres away. Funnily enough the sensor measured the speed of the light as going at the speed of light. He then got in a car, drove at 30mph and shined the light at the sensor again. The sensor reported that the light was still moving at the speed of light (no change). Although this doesn't appear to prove anything is you do an experiment with waves. Get a small trough of water. Put your hand in one end of the trough (fingers down, back of hand facing the direction you are going to move your hand). Now move your hand at a regular pace until you reach the middle of the trough at which point you should stop moving your hand- stop and note how fast the wave moves. Now, wait for the water to settle and do the same again but flick your wrist forward when you reach the middle point of the trough. You will see that the wave moves faster than before. If you imagine your moving hand to be the light beam and the flick of the wrist to be the additional speed of the car then its plain to see that waves act in a differently manner than light.

-Chunk
Actually, i might be wrong- i can't remember where i saw that experiment with the car being done.

I forget wich scientist said it but, light is a wave and a partical, or neither with qualitys of both.

Thats what makes this topic so confusing, half of you guy say yes its bent some say no its not.

CTR

Why does light travel in a wave instead of a straight line, isnt that why the teory was created is goes the path of least resistance?

chuck, a real example of that expermint was done by two bad ass mother fuckers named michelson and morley. any way there expriment failed but that's the good part. check it out
http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/physics/Michelson-MorleyExperiment.html

what do you think would happen if gravity could kill bad people with anti bad people radiation?

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Originally posted by nastradamnus:
Why does light travel in a wave instead of a straight line, isnt that why the teory was created is goes the path of least resistance?

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It goes the path of least time.

From what I understand, Chunk, you're disregarding the wave properties of light. Both the particle and wave properties of light can be shown using a piece of paper with slits in it and a sensor at one of the slits. With the sensor off, the light goes through like a wave would, producing a constant and uniform bar of light (blocked by the piece of paper at points obviously). With the sensor on, to record the light passing through, the results are as if light was a particle, with dots as a result. Both the particle theory and the wave theory explain different aspects of light.

The big thing about this light experiment is how can both things happen? It breaks into new barriers, showing that perhaps a multiverse it does exist. In one universe the light behaves as a wave. In another alternate universe the light behaves as a particle.

My apologies if I got any of that wrong.

But going back to Warfare's original question: Light is affected by gravity, just as all things are. Read up on gravity and you'll clearly understand why. Or: Imagine a bowling ball on a pillow (the pillow being space/time and the bowling ball being..say..a planet). That's how gravity works. It warps space so that paths are curved towards the object.

quote:

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Originally posted by xenosss:


But going back to Warfare's original question: Light is affected by gravity, just as all things are. Read up on gravity and you'll clearly understand why. Or: Imagine a bowling ball on a pillow (the pillow being space/time and the bowling ball being..say..a planet). That's how gravity works. It warps space so that paths are curved towards the object.

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Nice, thats the best answer yet, thanks.

CTR

I don't think light is bent by gravity, space is.

So, if the space is being pulled by gravity, then it is warped or bent.
The light travels through the space so it appears that light is bending but it is actually travelling straight through space... hope you can follow that.

Ya i got tht from the last post, thanks though... i may be asking a question but i can follow it and i am intlegent(however thats spelled).

CTR

Hey people.

1. Light does not have mass. If it had mass, no matter how small, it would not travel at the speed of light. Since any mass rapidly becomes infinity once it travels at that speed.

2. Light ALWAYS travels over a straight path but a path which exists in bent space dur to gravity.

3. Light is energy. Electromagnetic radiation of a higher frequency than our conventional radio-waves.

4. This is interesting. If light had mass, wouldn't the mass of our electric battery-powered torch reduce when the light was completely gone? Actually it does, due to loss of matter in the form of energy. But practically, you would have to be as small as an atom and then that reduced mass would be the mass of an ant as compared to you.

Sorry for the sort of undescriptive nature. I am just bored of typing.

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Originally posted by cyclops_in_xmen:
Hey people.
3. Light is energy.

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So you're saying that light does have a mass??

E=mc squared

E= energy
m=mass
c= the speed of light