Einstein's thought experiments

How does gravity bend light?

Image: Jindřich Nosek (NoJin), CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Einstein's thought experiments

How does gravity bend light?

Imagine you're walking across a trampoline stretched tight across a room. If you place a heavy ball in the middle, it creates a dip. Now, if you roll a marble across the trampoline, it curves towards the ball instead of moving straight.

Einstein's theory suggests that massive objects like stars and planets bend the fabric of space and time around them, causing the path of light to curve, much like the marble on the trampoline.

Example

A star's gravity bends light from a distant star, making it appear slightly shifted in position.

Remember this

Mass curves space, bending light and altering the path we see.

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