What is Bending of light: Definition and 31 Discussions

Spoon bending is the apparent deformation of objects, especially metal cutlery, either without physical force, or with less force than would normally seem necessary. It is a common theme for magic tricks, which use a variety of methods to produce the effect.
Spoon bending attracted considerable media attention in the 1970s when certain individuals claimed to have the ability to cause such events by paranormal psychic means. The most notable was Uri Geller, who performed by bending metal spoons as well as metal keys and several other objects and materials. Geller's performances were attributed to illusion by critics such as James Randi and Martin Gardner.

View More On Wikipedia.org
Recent contents Top users
  1. H

    I Bending of Light Along the Sun: Explaining Half w/ Equivalence Principle

    The equivalence principle tels us that we cannot distinguish between gravity and an accelleration. using that fact one can reconstruct the bending of light along the sun, but only half of it results from the equivalence principle together with the gravitational field around the sun. Is it...
  2. pixel

    I Bending of light - Newton vs. Einstein

    Using Newton's equation for gravity and assuming a corpuscular theory of light, one can calculate the angle that light would bend in a gravitational field. General relativity predicts a bend that is twice as large. In the Newtonian limit of GR (which includes weak gravity), does the GR...
  3. K

    Optics: Huygens' principle and bending of light

    I know the technical details of why light bends towards "the normal" when meeting a more refractive medium must be complicated. But I was thinking about it in a more lay fashion. I was thinking if the bending can be explained using Christiaan Huygens' principle in that a light front is made of...
  4. P

    I Bending of light - caused by gravity or relativity?

    The mainstream interpretation of GRT equations is, that additional double amount of angle of bending of light (Newton vs GRT) is caused by gravity (which is interpreted as curvature of spacetime). But when looking on the equations, it seems that this additional amount of bending is caused by...
  5. K

    A Gravitational Bending of Light: Equation for Photon Trajectory in Strong Fields

    I'm looking for an expression for the deflection of light in a static gravitational field. Referring to 'deflection of star light past the sun' in Sean Carroll's "Spacetime and Geometry" - equation 7.80 for the "transverse gradient": \nabla\perp\phi = \frac{GM}{(b^2 + x^2)^{3/2}}\vec b...
  6. alex4lp

    A Solve Bending of Light Formula Problem

    Good morning everybody. I have a problem with this wikipedia passage https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schwarzschild_geodesics#Bending_of_light_by_gravity 'cause it says "Expanding in powers of rs/r, the leading order term in this formula gives the approximate angular deflection δφ for a massless...
  7. U

    B Light Bending on Single Point: What Happens?

    Say you have two stars, star A and star B, separated by a distance of x, and the light from star A went directly from A to B but was heading directly for the centre point of star B. If the light passed near star B then due to the mass the will bend, yet if it was to pass through (or try to) the...
  8. F

    B Bending of light in a gravitational field

    I have a few conceptual issues following a standard thought experiment to argue why light bends in a gravitational field and I'm hoping I can clear them up here. Consider an observer in a lift in free-fall in a uniform gravitational field and an observer at rest in the uniform gravitational...
  9. SadPanda6022

    Bending of light concept help

    Homework Statement In this lab we used a half-circle container filled with water. Multiple angles are given to measure through the liquid in the container, calculating using snell's equation. However I don't understand why we do not have to calculate for the change in the angle from the plastic...
  10. Aurghyadip Kundu

    Bending of Light in diffraction? Is it actually possible?

    I know light has wave particle duality, I understand these two points very well, 1. Light moves as a probability function, taking all the possible paths at once. The alternate paths cancel themselves out, resulting in a particle-like combined motion. 2. When relatively close to an edge, some...
  11. JDMuir

    What happens at the boundary with light refraction?

    There is something I have been wondering about with refraction. There have been many explanations of why the light bends. However, it still does not feel intuitive. The question I have is with how light enters the clear object. Is it proven that light indeed enters at an angle that is instantly...
  12. SpiderET

    Interpretation of double bending / deflection

    Probably the most famous experiment confirming GR is bending of light by Sun. Here are the best explanations to this topic what I have found: http://www.mathpages.com/rr/s8-09/8-09.htm http://mathpages.com/rr/s6-03/6-03.htm Especially the graph of GR double bending vs Newtonian bending is...
  13. S

    Light Bending: Why Don't Waves Bend at Normal Incidence?

    why light waves do not bend at normal incidence?
  14. Keystone

    Bending Light? – Questions & Answers

    Hi , so , i am not asking this question for invisibility or anything like that, but i do have a few questions. First off, i know that photons have no charge, but is there any way that electro magnetic pulses can effect their path when the copper coils that make the electro magnet are at very...
  15. D

    Bending of Light: Newton vs Einstein

    Okay so according to https://briankoberlein.com/2014/08/01/bend-like-Newton/ link https://briankoberlein.com/2014/08/01/bend-like-Newton/ "The catch is that the amount of bending predicted by Newton’s model is half of what Einstein’s model predicted." (This is right after the changing diagram...
  16. avito009

    Bending of Light due to Gravity

    Why does light bend due to gravity? I thought hard, read a lot and I found 3 reasons I can give as the answer. But first let me tell you what Newton said. According to Newton light (Photons) is massless so light can't bend due to gravity because only things with mass can be affected by...
  17. shounakbhatta

    Bending of Light: General Relativity Explained

    Hello All, Kindly apologize if this question sounds rudimentary. General relativity which shows the bending of light. Is it due to: (a) Spacetime is curved due to massive objects and when light passes through that object, facing the obstruction it bends? (b) There is as such no force...
  18. S

    Refraction and bending of light

    please let me know what is the nature of force that bends the path of photon during refraction.
  19. M

    Understanding How Gravity Bends Light and Relates to General Relativity

    I have read in my Physics book that if gravitational acc and inertial acc are equivalent then gravity must bend light by a precise amount. What that means?What is inertial acc? What that equivalency has to do with general theory of relativity i.e with warping of space time?
  20. V

    Bending of light in a uniform gravitational field

    Homework Statement This is supposed to be a simple problem that shows that light bends or gets pulled in a gravitational field. A light pulse emitted in the positive x direction travels 10 s in a uniform gravitational field of 100 m/s^2. the gravitational field points in the negative y...
  21. C

    Why Does Light Bend Away From the Sun?

    I am reading God's Equation by Amir Aczel and he talks a lot about the early observations of eclipses which showed a displacement of the starlight around the sun, because space is curved around massive objects. But why does light bend away from the sun? If it's being affected by gravity...
  22. V

    Calculate Bending of Light: Find the Middle Point

    Hello, while solving bending of light problem, where I shoot a light ray from one tower to other. How much light has fallen upto the middle point ? I was able to reduce the eq to \phi=\int[1-a(\cos\theta+\frac{1}{1+\cos \theta})]^{-1/2}d\theta a is very small, also if there is no gravity "a"...
  23. T

    Confirming Einstein's Theory: Measurement of Bending of Light

    I just watched a show on Einstein concerning this theory of general relativity. Around 1922 photographs of stars from an eclipse were used to measure the bending of light from those stars around the gravitational field of the sun. Those measurements were used to confirm Einstein's theory. All...
  24. R

    Deriving Bending of Light from Maxwell's Equations

    Can the bending of light because of gravity be derived from the Maxwell equations written in curved space time, i.e., \frac{1}{\sqrt{-g}}\partial_\mu(\sqrt{-g}F^{\mu\nu}})=0 In all the examples the bending of light is treated as a massless particle traveling on a light-like geodesic (if I...
  25. T

    Bending of light and the travel distance

    a question has been puzzling me for a while is : "is the distance traveled by a beam of light from point A to Point B in a flat space-time differs from the distance traveled by the same beam of light from the same point A and The Same point B but in a curved space-time ?" In other words ...
  26. M

    Photons, gravity, and the bending of light.

    Hello everyone, first of all, english isn't my native language, so please excuse any spelling-mistakes during this post. secondly, i am very much new to the world of physics in general, but getting more and more interested by the whole concept of general relativity and quantum physics...
  27. redtree

    Gravity: A Dual Role as a Lens and a Prism for Light?

    Does gravity function as a lens, a prism or both?
  28. S

    Bending of Light: Other Observations Beyond Eddington

    Are there other observations for the bending of light apart from Eddington 1919...i want to know that whether bending of light is observed by other astronomers other than Eddington since this is a vital proof of general relativity...
  29. K

    Bending of Light around a Star

    I know that the formula for the angle of bending of light around the star \theta \; in radians is: \theta \; = \frac{4GM}{rc^2} This is equal to full bending of light, half of which occurs on the rear side of the star and the other half occurring on the foreground side. So half of this...
  30. T

    Field Theory - bending of light due to

    Mar 29 (from my journal site) "What we know. The force of gravity is much greater here on the face of the Earth opposed to the far upper atmosphere of our planet. Yet it is around a planet that we typically observe and associate with the bending of light. Here on the face of the Earth it...
  31. G

    Bending Light: Gravity, Invisibility and Orbit

    i know that gravity can bend light so from this principle i have two theoretical questions. first, can light bend around an object to the extent that the object becomes invisible? basically what i am thinking is that a beam of light coming form behind it will bend around the side and exit the...
Back
Top