Deflection of light to second order: A tool for illustrating principles of general relativity

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Abstract
Of closest approach of the ray. Using three different coordinate systems for the Schwarzschild metric we show that the answers for the deflection, while the same at order GM/dc2, differ at order (GM/dc2) 2. We demonstrate that all three expressions are really the same by expressing them in terms of measurable, coordinate-independent quantities. These results provide concrete illustrations of the meaning of coordinates and coordinate invariance, which may be useful in teaching general relativity. © 2003 American Association of Physics Teachers.