When Sally invited me to visit her in her physics lab we had not met in
person for over a year, and to tell the truth I was a bit startled by the
dramatic change in her appearance. Normally I try to be diplomatic when it
comes to potentially embarrassing questions, but in this case, once the
preliminary greetings were over with I just had to ask:
"So... you have been gaining some weight lately?"
She drew a sharp breath and visibly startled, and I cursed myself for being
such a blunt fool. Clearly this was a sensitive topic. But then she let out a
forced laugh:
"Oh, ha-ha. It must be that darn experimental black hole acting up again!
You see, it bends the lightrays so an object appears to subtend a larger angle
when viewed by an observer on the other side of it. I'd say it easily adds ten
pounds!"
She briskly walked up to the white-board and drew a quick diagram.
. (
. (
. (
* * * (
* * [ (
Me * + [ (
* * [ (
* * * (
. (
. (
. (
+ = singularity
* = true path of light
. = apparent (straight-line) path
[ = true size of Sally
( = apparent size
I really did not know what to make of it - a far gone case of denial, or was
this some kind of subtle put-down? So I tried to make light (sic) of the
situation.
"Aha. So that's why they call them gravitational lenses, eh?"
Women. I'll never understand them.
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