Gravitational Force and Light: Is There a Connection?

AI Thread Summary
Light is influenced by gravitational forces, as evidenced by its bending near stars and inability to escape black holes, despite having zero mass. Newton's laws indicate that gravitational attraction is zero when mass is zero, yet light still experiences gravitational effects. In Newtonian mechanics, even massless objects can be accelerated by gravity, as shown by the equation mg = ma. However, general relativity provides a more accurate framework for understanding light's behavior in gravitational fields, where gravity is not a force but a curvature of spacetime. Thus, the connection between gravitational force and light is explained through the principles of general relativity rather than classical mechanics.
marz
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Hello,
We know that light get bent near stars (because of its gravitational force), and in fact it cannot escape the gravitational forces of black holes.

We also know from Newton's laws of gravity that the gravitational attraction between any two objects is ZERO if any mass is ZERO.

We also know that photons (light) have ZERO mass.
So, if light has no mass, then why is it affected by any gravitational force ?
Am I missing something ?
Thanks.
 
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marz said:
Am I missing something ?
Only Einstein's theory of general relativity :wink:
 
Even in Newtonian mechanics, light was expected to be affected by gravitational fields. While there is no force, no force is necessary to accelerate an object with no mass. The idea in Newtonian mechanics would be to take ##mg = ma## and taking the limit ##m\to 0## would still give ##a = g##.

Now, Newtonian mechanics does not describe the bending of light appropriately and quantitatively, you need general relativity for that. In GR, mass is not the source of gravity and gravity is not even a force, so you should not have any expectation of gravity based on masses.
 
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