ASTRON 2B03 Study Guide - Final Guide: Big Bang, Galaxy Cluster, String Vibration

• School: McMaster University
• Department: Astronomy
• Course: ASTRON 2B03
• Professor: Christine Wilson

Document Summary

Einstein no experiment performed in one place can distinguish a gravitational field from an accelerated reference frame . General relativity applies to all observers despite their frame of reference. To someone in either situation the way the light falls due to gravity or acceleration upwards seems the same. Be somewhere with more gravity or over a larger length scale. Hard to measure on earth but we can see when light passes close to something much more massive - like a planet, bent by its gravitational field. Proposed test: light from a distant star will be bent by the gravity of the sun. Problem: the sun is too bright to detect this light on a normal day. Solution: detect the light during total solar eclipse. Expeditions were planned to brazil and africa in 1919 to observe the solar eclipse and the effect of the sun"s gravity on passing starlight.