View Single Post
Old 10-18-2007, 03:54 PM   #131
evman150
#1 Goaltender
 
evman150's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2002
Location: Richmond, BC
Exp:
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by MolsonInBothHands View Post
My simple brain is seeing contradictions.

Does light bend around strong gravitational pulls like that of a black hole? and if so, does a photon, a light particle have mass? and if so, how is it that something with mass is travelling the speed of light?

As well, in regards to the Lorentz contraction theory, does it really take 20 years for light to travel 20 light years if the contraction occurs and photons have mass, and so on?

My head hurts.
The Lorentz Transformation Equations are not theory.

Photons do not have mass. They do have momentum (p=hf).

Yes light bends around mass. This was one of the original cases that proved General Relativity.

It takes the light 20 years, from our perspective, to get here.

Don't worry, my head hurts too.
__________________
"For thousands of years humans were oppressed - as some of us still are - by the notion that the universe is a marionette whose strings are pulled by a god or gods, unseen and inscrutable." - Carl Sagan
Freedom consonant with responsibility.

evman150 is offline   Reply With Quote