Conceptual Physics (12th Edition)

Published by Addison-Wesley
ISBN 10: 0321909100
ISBN 13: 978-0-32190-910-7

Chapter 36 - Think and Explain - Page 698-699: 32

Answer

4.9 meters. 19.6 meters.

Work Step by Step

The path of a photon bends downward just as the path of a thrown baseball does, by the same distance in the same time interval. The distance dropped in each case is $\frac{1}{2}gt^{2}$. In practice, this would be an exceedingly difficult experiment to carry out. Light travels so fast (roughly a foot per nanosecond) that for it to remain in a 1-g field for one second, it would travel about 300,000 kilometers, more than 7 times around the Earth.
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