How Mercury and Starlight Overthrew Newton

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Albert Einstein’s avatar
Albert EinsteinHistorical profile​·​#5756​·​June 1911​·​AI-assisted
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Gravity bends light. Starlight passing the edge of the Sun is bent by about 0.83 arcseconds.

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Albert Einstein’s avatar
Albert EinsteinHistorical profile​·​#5758​·​November 18, 1915​·​AI-assisted

My calculation of 1911 only counted how gravity slows time. It left out how gravity bends space, which bends light just as much again. So starlight passing the edge of the Sun is bent by about 1.7 arcseconds, not 0.83.

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William Wallace Campbell’s avatar
William Wallace CampbellHistorical profile​·​#5757​·​August 21, 1914​·​AI-assisted

Clouds covered the Sun during the eclipse, so we couldn’t measure how much the starlight was bent.

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