Light + gravity?

Question

I recently asked the question on whether fire was affected by gravity, the answer was no/unnoticeably, but then why can light be affected by gravity? (Eg, a black hole). And speaking of black holes, do they actually exist or they just theoretical? Is there proof?

Answer 1

I guess an uneducated person might say fire is not affected by gravity as it goes up instead of down. However, this is only because fire is a bunch of very hot gasses with a much lower density than the air around it. Lower density objects in higher density environments rise, example: wood floating in water. Everything with mass OR energy is affected by gravity. Since photons have energy they are affected by and have gravity despite having no rest mass.

And black holes do exist. I believe the plumes of energized particles jetting from black hole poles is what we see when we detect them. We also know where they are when we see things affected by a very massive object yet see nothing where said object should be.

Answer 2

Whoever told you fire is unaffected by gravity was incorrect.  Convection of hot combustion products away from the fire allows a continuous supply of oxygen to reach it.  Without that, most fires would self-extinguish due to lack of oxygen.  See the reference for one example of an experiment with fire in zero gravity.

Light is affected by gravity because gravitational mass warps spacetime.  That's general relativity.

As far as I know, no direct evidence has been found for the existence of black holes.  Many observations are consistent with the presence of black holes, but I think they would also be consistent with the presence of neutron stars.  Some argue that relativistic time dilation would actually prevent the formation of a black hole by gravitational collapse in a finite time.  But that wouldn't disallow lingering black holes from the early expansion of the universe.

Answer 3

Fire is affected by gravity.  To say that the effect is unnoticeable under normal circumstances is correct, but you could say the same thing about light.  There is an effect in any case.  Gravity effects (and is created by) ALL forms of energy.

Answer 4

hi u r so genius man ! it is the my next question which i want to ask ? look in hindu culture the fire is always regarded as god man or(DEVTAS) , i being a hindu worship fire , because of showing quite different nature it is always respectable in many culture .

the second thing is that  oxyzon is reponsible for fire , its true that air help it to make it to go upperside because it is also heated and goes upside but the heat is due to fire .

look the logic behind it fire is the last state when some thing  got energy and the atoms can't make them in stable state  , and they change in energy which  can be feel by heat . and looking by light the combination is fire.

so ultimately fire is also a form of electromagnetic radiation which is seen by our eyes . so it is a form of energy which is also effected by gravity because all energies r effected by gravity. heat is the form of energy which we felt .

so fire is effected by gravity.

Answer 5

black holes exist and there ares data to support that

Answer 6

Yes they exist, yes there is proof, and yes light is effected by gravity because light travels in waves.

Answer 7

Fire is HUGELY affected by gravity.  And black holes are very real...read "A Brief History of Time" by Stephen Hawking.  It's a MUST for anyone who is interested in space, but doesn't know where to begin.

Answer 8

Gravity will bend light waves, but it will not slow down or speed up light waves (light always travels at the same speed). Basically gravity will affect anything - even fire.

Also black holes have been proven to exist and in fact it appears that the center of every galaxy has a black hole.

Answer 9

fire like every thing else on this planet is obviously affected by gravity. it would be neat to see what fire looks like in 0 G