this post was submitted on 09 Jul 2026
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they do tavel in a perfectly straight line though.
space time is curved, not the light path.
What about the fact that light bends around corners? Notably the interference pattern when shining light through a slit?
Stop being mean to light by making it choose what slits to go through.
it has choice anxiety.
Ah, sorry for the confusion, I was referring to the single-slit experiment, I wasn't giving light a choice.
that's worse :(
let light be free
I don’t think that’s right because they are affected by gravity, even if ever so slightly
But isn't the gravity bending the space, so the light itself is travelling straight but seems curved to the observer?
Hmm, I’m not actually sure. Are we also ignoring refraction and reflection because the path is straight between those? If we’re talking discrete photons, you may be correct about each segment in its path being perfectly straight, but I’m not a theoretical physicist.
"through vacuum"
gravity isn't a force, it's the curvature of space-time itself.
light follows a perfectly straight line through vacuum. the space itself isn't straight.
like drawing a straight line on a flat paper, if you roll the paper, that line is still straight within it's medium.
Newtonian gravity has been replaced by General relativity, and has been proven to be the correct model (at least more correct than Newtonian gravity).
Makes sense to me. Thanks