Henry Cavendish, Johann von Soldner, and the deflection of light

Will, Clifford M.

doi:doi:10.1119/1.15622

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American Journal of Physics -- May 1988 -- Volume 56, Issue 5, pp. 413

Henry Cavendish, Johann von Soldner, and the deflection of light

Clifford M. Will

McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences, Department of Physics, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri 63130

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The gravitational deflection of light based on Newtonian theory and the corpuscular model of light was calculated, but never published, around 1784 by Henry Cavendish, almost 20 years earlier than the first published calculation by Johann Georg von Soldner. The two results are slightly different because, while Cavendish treated a light ray emitted from infinity, von Soldner treated a light ray emitted from the surface of the gravitating body. At the first order of approximation, they agree with each other; both are one‐half the value predicted by general relativity and confirmed by experiment.