Can light only travel in straight lines
WebAnswer (1 of 4): Not exactly. They propagate out like ripples on a lake, and get diffracted by different mediums, reflected and distorted by obstructions, and generally do their best to misbehave. WebA straight line is 'In the eye of the beholder'. As far as light is concerned it travels in a straight line from point A to point B. However, for a distant observer the trajectory may be a bit curved. The reason is that the geometry of space is a bit warped near a massive gravitational source like a black hole or even the sun.
Can light only travel in straight lines
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WebDec 22, 2024 · The notion of a straight line being the shortest path applies only in Euclidean geometries. For a general curved manifold, which we deal with in GR, we instead talk about geodesics.Light does bend, in the sense that it follows curved geodesics, though in these geometries it doesn't make sense to talk about straight lines any more: the … WebLight travels in a straight line, and therefore it was only natural for Newton to think of it as extremely small particles that are emitted by a light source and reflected by objects. The corpuscular theory, however, cannot explain wave-like light phenomena such as diffraction and interference.
WebApr 8, 2016 · We sometimes talk about photons and sometimes talk about light rays, but these are only approximations. As a general principle light behaves like a particle when energy is being exchanged with something else, and like a wave when energy is propagating. So light travels like a wave and interacts like a particle. Web4 Answers. Light has momentum. Light must travel in a straight line for momentum to be conserved. One of the best answers on this site: love how it cuts through to a core physical principle in two lines, although I think the form p → = ℏ k → better illustrates your pithy point.
WebApr 7, 2024 · The answer to the question of how light normally travels is that light travels in a straight line. But the actual answer is light seems to travel in a straight line because … WebOct 6, 2024 · Based on all our examples, it seems light to travel along a straight line. Now, we will try to understand from a very simple example. Take the following things: A hollow …
WebLight can travel in a straight line, but it can also be bent. This phenomenon is known as refraction and occurs when light passes through different mediums with different …
WebLight travels in a straight line can be observed by keeping an object in path of light. ... Light emerging from the torch, train and lamps always travel in a straight line. Let us study in detail how does light travel in a … share infoWebThe precise statement should be that light in free space moves in straight lines and constant velocity wrt inertial reference frames. It does not move in straight lines or constant velocity in accelerating reference frames or in non homogeneous media. The fact that … poorest constituency in ukWebDec 15, 2024 · The only reason we can see the things around us is that light, either from the Sun or from something like an electric lamp here on Earth, reflects off them into our eyes. ... Light waves travel in straight lines through empty space (a vacuum), but more interesting things happen to them when they travel through other materials—especially … poorest city in south africapoorest communities in south africaWebLight can travel through empty space. Unlike sound, which needs a medium (like air or water) to travel through, light can travel in the vacuum of space. Light travels in straight lines. Once light has been produced, it will keep travelling in a straight line until it hits something else. Shadows are evidence of light travelling in straight ... poorest city in the united statesWeb7. Light is said to travel in straight-line paths, as light rays, until it interacts with matter. A line representing the original ray before it interacts with matter is called a (an) a. incoming light ray b. incident ray c. reflected light ray d. normal ray share informaticaWebnetic energy travel at the speed of light, the wavelength equals the speed of light divided by the ... traveling in straight lines, as if it were covering the surface of an ever expanding sphere. This area increases proportionally to the ... it is spread over 100 times the area it covers at one AU. Thus, Saturn receives only 1/100th the solar ... poorest counties in california