3 ms·
I'd always understood gravity to be a mutual attraction between two masses. So the thing I have difficulty understanding is how light can only be attracted to m
by thailandstartup 16y ago
I'd always understood gravity to be a mutual attraction between two masses. So the thing I have difficulty understanding is how light can only be attracted to mass, but itself cannot attract mass, no matter the quantity present.
- avar 16y agoI think I'm correct in saying that the light isn't attracted to the mass, but the mass bends spacetime around it, so the path of everything traveling through that medium is bent, including the paths of photons. This effect causis gravitational lensing: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravitational_lens http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravitational_lens
- thailandstartup 16y agoHmm, thanks. I did a little more searching and reading about this with my new vocabulary (bending spacetime). It seems like photons also bend spacetime. More info here. All of it contradictory :) http://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=287888 http://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=287888 So I'm still wondering if it is proper to think of a star's gravitational field being caused not just by its matter, but also by all the photons it has pumped out over its lifetime.
- avar 16y agoIt doesn't make any sense to define a gravity field by photons. They're massless, so they don't attract anything, and most of the photons a star has produced over its lifetime are speeding away across the universe billions of light years away from it. Only things with mass can attract other objects with the gravitational force. Photons aren't in that category.