I have a very powerful laser. I stand at the top of Kilimanjaro. Level it perfectly tangent to the earth. Turn it on. 1.) Will the light: a.) continue on a straight line out to space b.) travel around the world and end up right behind me c.) combination of both and go out to space but it's path be affected by the earth's gravity d.) none of the above (please explain) 2.) IF the laser light will reach space, how would the rotating of the earth and the orbit of the earth around the sun affect the path of that light (if at all).
Are you sure you dont mean tangent to the earth's surface where you're at? Perpendicular would be straight up. How would it even remotly be possible then to go around earth? 2) Ever play with a spirograph? Your position on earth with respect to the sun would look somewhat like a picture made by a spirograph, so imagine a line perpendicular to that at whatever given point.
1) I'd say the amount the light is bent from earths gravity is negligable. 2) see #2 in my first post but change perpendicular to tangent.
even though the result is negligible, if your perspective was universe wide, the gravity of the earth would have a noticible effect
Astronomers use the gravitational 'bending' of light to look for massive objects in the universe. It's how they find a lot of things.
one_raven: The light will be bent a little by Earth's gravity as it propagates into space. I'm sure if you do a web search you'll find Einstein's relativistic formula for the angle of deflection of the light, which depends on the mass of the Earth and the distance of your torch from the centre.
are you getting confused between this and the question that asks of firing a cannonball fast enough, on perfect level with the earth, that it enters intoa low orbit (frictional cosiderations aside) and eventually smacks you in the ass?
