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[-] RojoSanIchiban@lemmy.world 29 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Mass distorts spacetime, which to an outside observer appears to change the direction light travels. The light travels in a straight line.

Gravity doesn't alter the particle's trajectory (or ours, for that matter). The warping of spacetime from Earth's mass causes our movement through space to accelerate "down" at ~9.8 m/s^2

So the ghosts are in the center of the Earth, in nearly literal hell.

[-] octoperson@sh.itjust.works 16 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

They would fall through the center of the earth, continue back up through the mantle, pop up momentarily to spook someone on the opposite hemisphere, then repeat the whole trip in reverse with a period of about 40 minutes.

[-] RojoSanIchiban@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago

Hm.. actually are they incorporeal AND massless, or just incorporeal?

If just incorporeal, you're right of course that initially after death they'd be falling back and forth, but over time through uneven gravity/curvature and through heat loss (stretching of unequal acceleration applied across the ghost essence, potential energy conversion, yadda), they should generally settle to the center after some time, unless there's a maximum natural pressure of ghosts at whatever temperatures they have, so they may spread out somewhere within the crust if there are enough of them.

If they're incorporeal AND massless, then I totally F'd up and they'd fire off at light speed as soon as they shed their mortal coil.

[-] DrQuint@lemm.ee 11 points 1 year ago

But light isn't a particle it's a wave. I mean, just look at it... Oh... Forget it. It's a particle.

[-] MrPoopbutt@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

It's neither a particle nor a wave, it's a photon.

A zebra is neither a horse nor a tiger, though it shares properties with both.

[-] Rodeo@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 year ago

If the spacetime is distorted, and the light no longer appears to travel in a straight line, does that not mean that spacetime itself and the light that travels in are no longer straight?

How can a straight thing be distorted but still be straight?

[-] ssboomman@lemm.ee 4 points 1 year ago

I think a better way of explaining it is with the idea of a shortest path, and not nessesarily a straight line. With two points in space the shortest path between them will be a straight line. If there’s a large amount of gravity tugging on space time the shortest path will be curved.

[-] RojoSanIchiban@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

That's called General Relativity and Reference Frames.

Start watching PBS Spacetime if you actually want to get into it.

You're also entirely missing the point of the comment that was a joke entirely re-explaining the "reason" for ghosts ending up at the center of the Earth, which is implied by the original comment.

this post was submitted on 31 Oct 2023
295 points (95.4% liked)

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