"Double-A" wrote in message...
oups.com...

Hi Paine,

Sorry but I didn't have an answer for you back when you posted this a
couple months ago, but I have now come across some new information.

The question was whether the delay in photons passing close to the Sun
was sufficiently explained by the increased distance resulting from the
bending of their path due to the Sun's gravity field.

The following is from a paper by Dr. Paul Marmot of the University of
Ottawa. I know he has some unusal views, but I believe his
calculations here are in standard form.


Dr. Paul Marmot:

"Delay Due to the Geometrical Bending of Light.
We have seen above that general relativity predicts that light
passing near the solar limb is deflected by an angle of 1.75". The same
theory predicts that due to the same gravitational potential, the
radiation takes a longer time to travel the distance between the Earth
and Mars. Figure 1 illustrates how light is deflected when grazing the
Sun.


Geometrical Time Delay
Figure 1

One can see on figure 1 that if the trajectory of light is not
a straight line (dotted line), it takes a longer time to travel between
Mars and the Earth. The increase of time Dtb due only to the
geometrical bending of light by d = 1.75" is given by the relationship:


(You can visit the site to see the actual equations)

We find that Dtb = 0.010 ms or 3.2 meters. The increase of time
D tb (with respect to a straight line) taken by light to travel from
the Earth to Mars due to the geometrical bending of light is extremely
small and negligible with respect to the delay (125 ms or 36 km)
predicted by relativity as given in equation 5. Consequently, the angle
made by light grazing the Sun is totally insufficient to explain the
increase of distance (or delay) compatible with the prediction of
general relativity as given in equations 3 and 5. This geometrical
delay caused by the bending is not the main cause of the delay
predicted by general relativity. It is several thousand times too
small."

http://www.newtonphysics.on.ca/ECLIPSE/Eclipse.html


Double-A:

So it is not the increased length of the path due to bending that is
responsible for the significant part of the time delay.

My point is that from our perpective light is travelling slower when it
passes near the Sun. This also suggests that light travelling through
space outside the graviy well of the Sun must be travelling faster than
c as measured on Earth.

Some constant!

Double-A

Interesting stuff, AA! If i read it correctly, then objects
(stars and galaxies) we see out there could be a great
deal closer to us than we think!

You see, while light traveling through space outside the
gravity well of the Sun must be traveling faster than light
near to the Sun, the light outside the gravity well is still
traveling at speeds significantly lower than c. This means
that this light, the light from stars and galaxies, takes
quite a bit *longer* to reach us than previously thought.
Therefore, the objects emitting this light are a whole lot
closer (some of them "reachable" perhaps in the near
future?) than we thought!

Ref:
"Consequently, equation 7 shows that, everywhere in
space, light is transmitted at a velocity slower than the
accepted definition of the velocity of light known on
Earth."

happy days and...
starry starry nights!

--
Photons!...
Puzzling bursts of energy!
Particles and waves they be!
Pummeling eyes so we may see!
Promises of dreams to be!

Indelibly yours,
Paine http://www.savethechildren.org/
http://www.painellsworth.net