Did the same thing to a science teacher when they said, “light only travels in a straight line” thing. It DOES only travel in straight lines, but refraction is a thing, and geodesics are never perfectly straight.
You can also move in a straight line but still go on a curve to an outside observer, just make the outside observer something off earth and walk a significant portion of the circumference of the earth.
When talking about normal refractions, it can be argued that thoose are still two peices of straight lines just like reflections.
But there was some experiment which light bends in curved path in a solution of varying concentration from top to bottom. So there was a gradient of optical density(higher at bottom) and caused smooth curving of light
Did the same thing to a science teacher when they said, “light only travels in a straight line” thing. It DOES only travel in straight lines, but refraction is a thing, and geodesics are never perfectly straight.
Bonus, it only travels through a straight line through curved space, so to an outside observer the light did curve.
Why does light get to be so special? It makes the rest of us feel bad.
You can also move in a straight line but still go on a curve to an outside observer, just make the outside observer something off earth and walk a significant portion of the circumference of the earth.
Ooo I guess planes are a good example
That’s less light being special and more space thinking it’s funny to fuck with physicists by not being euclidean
When talking about normal refractions, it can be argued that thoose are still two peices of straight lines just like reflections.
But there was some experiment which light bends in curved path in a solution of varying concentration from top to bottom. So there was a gradient of optical density(higher at bottom) and caused smooth curving of light
Edit: Oh it was just sugar solution http://physicsed.buffalostate.edu/pubs/StudentIndepStudy/EURP09/Sugar/sugar.html
Edit 2: Found this too which is much better demo https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rnNjV3fh-4M