Counter-intuitively, black holes do bend light inward and prevent it from escaping, but as far as i know this does not have a bearing on the objective speed of light. In fact, the reason why light can travel at the speed of light and nothing else can is that the faster you go, the more your mass is multiplied. Since light has no mass, it can travel faster than anything, because 1000000x0 is still 0.

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The acceleration due to gravity is constant at 9.81 m/s2

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at a point, objects reach their maximum velocity

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light can travel at the speed of light and nothing else

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I never learned that. Why/How does that happen?

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The terminal velocity of everything is the same. However, based on mass, resistance/friction, gravity and other energies acting upon it (largely kinetic), the terminal velocity is the balance of forces acting to move it in opposite directions. The reason light doesn't appear to slow down at Earth is because it has almost no mass, and can seemingly travel through things (I would imagine it just goes through gaps between the electrons and nucleus of an atom, but I'm no expert).

Truth be told, we don't know whether gravity wells speed up light or not, because we've just not been able to measure light at a strong enough point of gravity, for whatever reason. Some theories say it occurs, some don't, but that's all they are; theories, conjecture. You'll not likely get your answer at LW.

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When they leave you, they're in tears.

Youve just disproved a whole chunk of physics there.

So refraction is just a mysterious phenomenom that occurs spontaneously?

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Light is also affected by gravity as proven by Albert Einstein. A black hole has almost infinite density and therefore so much gravity that even dimensions such as time and space are affected. so is light. Example: If you are Bob and your brother is ted. Imagine ted is going on a trip into a black hole. You both have a very powerful telescope that can see things millions of light years away. He would be able to see you since light bounces off of you and gets sucked by the black hole to where he is. But, soon, you will not be able to see him because the black hole's almost infinite density and gravity will suck in the photons of light and (If you trust the theory of parralel universes) be brought through a wormhole to another universe where the laws of physics and quantum physics may be completely different then ours. In short, yes, light is affected by the gravity of a black hole. But, it does not go any faster. Light is the fastest speed you can go. As proven by the theory of relativity E=MC2, All matter may converted to energy depending on their speed, the closer you get to the speed of light, the more you mass increases until, when you reach the speed of light, you are converted into light energy. So, no, light does not move any faster next to a black hole. Plus, look at other peoples posts about gravity and terminal velocity. Unfortunatley, I am not fluent in regular physics though I do read intently about quantum physics.

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Actually, the theory E=MC2 states that you can go faster than the speed of light, slower than the speed of light, but not the speed of light because as you go faster your density increases and so you have to get more power to be able go faster...

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Joke Thread!

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Actually, the theory E=MC2 states that you can go faster than the speed of light, slower than the speed of light, but not the speed of light because as you go faster your density increases and so you have to get more power to be able go faster...

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Actually, I believe you're wrong. It is impossible to go faster than the speed of light, as light in a vacuum travels at 3.0E8 m/s relative to any reference point. So say you're moving at 3.0E8 m/s in space; light is still traveling 3.0E8 m/s faster than you.

Also, doesn't E=mc^2 just describe the amount of energy an object would have given all it's mass was accelerated to the speed of light? Or the energy required to move an object to the speed of light?

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 Actually, the theory E=MC2 states that you can go faster than the speed of light, slower than the speed of light, but not the speed of light because as you go faster your density increases and so you have to get more power to be able go faster...

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e=mc2 is the formula for calculating mass-energy equivalence.  it says nothing about how fast you can travel. it certainly doesn't say you can travel faster than the speed of light.  in any normal situation, you can't.  (by normal I mean "every known situation except the early expansion of the universe.")

you.. you're just... I can't believe you are a real person.

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 Actually, I believe you're wrong. It is impossible to go faster than the speed of light, as light in a vacuum travels at 3.0E8 m/s relative to any reference point. So say you're moving at 3.0E8 m/s in space; light is still traveling 3.0E8 m/s faster than you.

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Post edited at 3:47 am on Mar. 27, 2008 by gro

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F[g]=GM[1]M[2] / (r^2),

Where square-brackets indicate subscripts.

Basically, to find the force of gravity acting on the particle, multiply the mass of the black hole by the constant 'G', multiply that by the mass of a photon, and then divide by the square of the distance between them.

On the one hand, black holes are very dense, hence a lot of mass. But on the other hand, photons are very small and thus have very little mass.

Given a size of black hole, you could probably find it's event horizon by determining it's escape velocity or something, and at that point you could find the force of gravity acting on that photon.

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Share your webcomics
The worst thing you can do,
is trick yourself into thinking that you are special.

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Because of gravity things fall faster as they get nearer to the ground so does light go faster near a lot of gravity like a black hole?

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Because I didn't see anyone else mention this, I think I'll be the first to say it. Relativity states that the speed of light in a vacuum will be exactly the same to any observer, so what has to be affected by the black hole's gravity is the spacetime around it. That is, if a person standing on the surface of a black hole could see photons, they would be falling at exactly the same speed as a person on Earth would observe them to, but the passage of time around the black hole would be greatly slowed.

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Quote: from jasonzlpa at 2:49 pm on Mar. 9, 2008

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Actually, the theory E=MC2 states that you can go faster than the speed of light, slower than the speed of light, but not the speed of light because as you go faster your density increases and so you have to get more power to be able go faster...

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Actually, I believe you're wrong. It is impossible to go faster than the speed of light, as light in a vacuum travels at 3.0E8 m/s relative to any reference point. So say you're moving at 3.0E8 m/s in space; light is still traveling 3.0E8 m/s faster than you.

Also, doesn't E=mc^2 just describe the amount of energy an object would have given all it's mass was accelerated to the speed of light? Or the energy required to move an object to the speed of light?

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No, I looked it up for this.  E=MC^2 means many things.  Einstein didn't create it just for one purpose, and these are both one of about 15 differ reasonings.

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Joke Thread!

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No, I looked it up for this.  E=MC^2 means many things.  Einstein didn't create it just for one purpose, and these are both one of about 15 differ reasonings.

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No, no, no.  Einstein had three major theories: mass-energy equivalence, general relativity, and special relativity.

General relativity says that without outside references, acceleration within a gravitational field can not be distinguished from gravity's pull itself.  In other words, if you're in a windowless space elevator that's going up at 32 ft/s, it'll feel identical to being in a motionless elevator that is sitting on the Earth, at rest.
Here's a good illustration:

Special relativity says the speed of light is the same for all observers, regardless of how fast they are moving or in which direction they are moving relative to the beam of light.  The second half of special relativity states that observers moving at constant, equal speeds will be able to agree on physical observations.  

The only way that the two parts of special relativity can be put together is if lengths of time and physical lengths dilate as speed increase, relative to the observer's frame of reference.  In other words, if I'm standing still, and you are running at relativistic (near c speeds, we are not going to agree on the lengths of objects or time.  Your clock is going to run slower than mine, and your ruler is going to be shorter than mine, because of special relativity.

Mass-energy equivalence is separate from, but related to, relativity.  Basically, e=mc^2 says that matter and energy and interchangable, but have a high exchange rate.  It takes a lot of energy to equal a little bit of energy, but a little matter equals a whole lot of energy.    

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light go faster near a lot of gravity like a black hole?

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Speed is relative, remember that. I postulate that the speed of light would always seem to come out the same due no matter the observer's "speed".

To answer your question; Yes, light is seemingly effected by black holes. There is a term called the event horizon, which is a mathematically calculated theoretical distance from a black hole where the pull of gravity is strong enough to stop light from escaping. Thusly, no light is able to come out, and we cannot "see" them. That is why they are called black holes (I think).

Post edited at 7:53 am on April 10, 2008 by Khadgar

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Quote: from mcdouga at 9:43 pm on Feb. 21, 2008

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light go faster near a lot of gravity like a black hole?

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To answer your question; Yes, light is seemingly effected by black holes. There is a term called the event horizon, which is a mathematically calculated theoretical distance from a black hole where the pull of gravity is strong enough to stop light from escaping.

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Thusly, no light is able to come out, and we cannot "see" them. That is why they are called black holes (I think).

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