What Is Beam Bending?

One of the important predictions of general relativity is that light rays bend as they pass near the strong gravitational field.

Light bending

The verification of the general relativity light-bending predictions, through the media directly facing the masses, and some scientific and cultural books, are often dramatized, simplified and exaggeratedly reproduced to the audience and readers. For example in an artistic representation

Brief clarification

There are three historical facts that can easily cause confusion in the predictions and confirmations around the light. Before narrating the true history of the ray-bending predictions, a brief clarification is made separately.

First, light bending is not a prophecy unique to general relativity. As early as 1704, holding light particles said

Based on the aforementioned verification history of light bending, there seems to be a question: Can it only be said that Einstein's general theory of relativity did not become the "correct" theory until 1973 or even 1991? In order to resolve this doubt, the author believes that the correctness of general relativity needs to be discussed on three levels.

In the eyes of the public

The first level is the correctness of general relativity in the eyes of the general public.

At a joint meeting of the Royal Astronomical Society and the Royal Society, held on November 6, 1919, astronomer Royle announced: "Starlight does follow Einstein's

Refers to light that is affected by the fluctuations of space, causing the course to shift and bend.

Refer to Baidu Encyclopedia entry: relativity, principle of invariance of light speed, super photon, time course, Lorentz coordinate transformation, clock slow effect, speed effect, super light speed, Lorentz transformation, limit speed, special relativity, time tunnel, Twins are paradoxical.