they do tavel in a perfectly straight line though.
space time is curved, not the light path.
Comment on I must con(FeS₂), this sparked a laugh
mrsemi@lemmy.world 1 day agono science teacher would ever say that.
Careful with those absolute statements there buddy. I was told the same by a teacher, who challenged the class to come up with natural examples of either straight lines or perfect circles. He talked about how such things cannot exist because at high enough resolution/magnification there will always be interruptions.
Your own example of light traveling in straight lines doesn’t account for the fact that photons are waves and absolutely do not travel in straight lines.
IAmNorRealTakeYourMeds@lemmy.world 1 day ago
SystemDisc@feddit.org 1 day ago
False because they are affected by gravity, even if ever so slightly
Maldreamer@lemmy.world 1 day ago
But isn’t the gravity bending the space, so the light itself is travelling straight but seems curved to the observer?
SystemDisc@feddit.org 1 day ago
Hmm, I’m not actually sure. Are we also ignoring refraction and reflection because the path is straight between those? If we’re talking discrete photons, you may be correct about each segment in its path being perfectly straight, but I’m not a theoretical physicist.
IAmNorRealTakeYourMeds@lemmy.world 1 day ago
gravity isn’t a force, it’s the curvature of space-time itself.
light follows a perfectly straight line through vacuum. the space itself isn’t straight.
like drawing a straight line on a flat paper, if you roll the paper, that line is still straight within it’s medium.
SystemDisc@feddit.org 1 day ago
Makes sense to me. Thanks
nehal3m@lemmy.zip 1 day ago
Only a Sith!
Klear@piefed.world 1 day ago
In that case that Pyrite proves nothing.
Derpenheim@lemmy.zip 1 day ago
But photons are also particles.
PapaStevesy@lemmy.world 6 hours ago
It travels in a straight line, just not in every dimension. Look at a waveform from above, it’s a straight line.
some_kind_of_guy@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
Astonished