sci.physics.particle

On Feb 25, 4:41 am, "harry" <...@>
wrote:
> On Feb 24, 11:25 pm, "chu...@" wrote:
>
> > Ok...so I've been wondering how on earth does gravity bend light, I
> > mean I read all about how Einstein's General Relativity describes
> > space-time, and when there's a mass in space-time it creates a
> > curve(Bowling ball on a sheet or something), and that curve is
> > Gravity, and when light passes through the curve it bends....but why?
>
> Einstein explained it as follows:
>
> The light nearer to the sun (or the earth) propagates slower than the ligh=
t
> farther away
>
> ------> light ray velocity vectors
> ----->
>
> X sun
>
> Using the Huygens construction,/wiki/Huygens%E2%80%=
93Fresnel_principle
> we can find the wave fronts as follows:
>
> =A6------>/
> =A6----->/
> =A6 /
> wave fronts
>
> X
>
> The light propagates perpendicular to the wave fronts; consequently, the
> light must bend.

Interesting. It contradicts my toy notions of gravity as being a
series of spatial "wells" around which I would have naively expected
the shorter distance (and time) to be along a path nearer the massive
object. Maybe I should be thinking of space-near-mass as a higher
density of "ether' with a refractive index? Maybe those gravitons are
rest stops?

--
David Winsemius