this post was submitted on 02 Mar 2024
782 points (95.8% liked)

Science Memes

12952 readers
2754 users here now

Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.



Rules

  1. Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
  2. Keep it rooted (on topic).
  3. No spam.
  4. Infographics welcome, get schooled.

This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.



Research Committee

Other Mander Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Practical and Applied Sciences

Memes

Miscellaneous

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] MotoAsh@lemmy.world 15 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Did the same thing to a science teacher when they said, "light only travels in a straight line" thing. It DOES only travel in straight lines, but refraction is a thing, and geodesics are never perfectly straight.

[–] JPAKx4@lemmy.blahaj.zone 22 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Bonus, it only travels through a straight line through curved space, so to an outside observer the light did curve.

[–] Alexstarfire@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Why does light get to be so special? It makes the rest of us feel bad.

[–] JPAKx4@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You can also move in a straight line but still go on a curve to an outside observer, just make the outside observer something off earth and walk a significant portion of the circumference of the earth.

[–] Grandwolf319 2 points 1 year ago

Ooo I guess planes are a good example

[–] PhlubbaDubba@lemm.ee 4 points 1 year ago

That's less light being special and more space thinking it's funny to fuck with physicists by not being euclidean

[–] mexicancartel@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

When talking about normal refractions, it can be argued that thoose are still two peices of straight lines just like reflections.

But there was some experiment which light bends in curved path in a solution of varying concentration from top to bottom. So there was a gradient of optical density(higher at bottom) and caused smooth curving of light

Edit: Oh it was just sugar solution http://physicsed.buffalostate.edu/pubs/StudentIndepStudy/EURP09/Sugar/sugar.html

Edit 2: Found this too which is much better demo https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rnNjV3fh-4M