Gravitational Waves Observed

Cord Hurn · Posted: Fri Feb 12, 2016 12:20 am Post subject: Gravitational Waves Observed

It's considered to be an important discovery that they've actually been observed. Albert Einstein predicted their existence a century ago. Cool

"Gravitational waves carry information about their dramatic origins and about the nature of gravity that cannot otherwise be obtained. Physicists have concluded that the detected gravitational waves were produced during the final fraction of a second of the merger of two black holes to produce a single, more massive spinning black hole. This collision of two black holes had been predicted but never observed."

www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/02/160211103935.htm

Zarathustra · Posted: Fri Feb 12, 2016 2:11 am Post subject:

This is a big BIG deal. Wow. I was shocked at the news. They've been looking a long time. The implications and confirmations here are huge. Maybe even bigger than the Higgs boson. What an exciting time to be alive.
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Avatar · Posted: Fri Feb 12, 2016 5:17 am Post subject:

So...what are the implications?

--A
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Cord Hurn · Posted: Sat Feb 13, 2016 1:58 am Post subject:

Question: "How can you explain gravitational waves to an average person, with little knowledge of physics?"

Cord Hurn · Posted: Sat Feb 13, 2016 2:10 am Post subject:

As for some of the implications, at least a few of them involve making instruments with sufficient sensitivity that we can look far enough back in space and time to see the moment of creation, telling us through the radiation detected what exactly caused the big bang that started the universe.

Wosbald · Posted: Sat Feb 13, 2016 2:48 am Post subject:

+JMJ+

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Cord Hurn · Posted: Sat Feb 13, 2016 2:56 am Post subject:

Well done, Wosbald!!! Those are terrific graphic aids!

Fist and Faith · Posted: Sat Feb 13, 2016 3:07 am Post subject:

Yup. Very cool. Very Happy

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Avatar · Posted: Mon Feb 15, 2016 5:37 am Post subject:

Nice.

But I mean, this isn't going to usher in some amazing new technology or anything right? Very Happy

--A
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Hashi Lebwohl · Posted: Mon Feb 15, 2016 6:10 pm Post subject:

I concur--it is a very big deal...but it isn't going to usher in a new "golden age" of technological or scientific advancement. At least, not quickly, at any rate. The fact that they were detected at all is, itself, a scientific achievement, though--possibly even Nobel-worthy.

The task now is to fine-tune the equipment, detect more instances of gravitational waves, and refine the current models describing reality.

I doubt we have the capability of creating our own gravitational waves but even if we did we couldn't use them for communication because they are still subject to the speed limit of c.

If they are created by the collisions of massive black holes then they should be created by the collisions of galaxies, as well.
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Zarathustra · Posted: Tue Feb 16, 2016 2:03 am Post subject:

Avatar · Posted: Tue Feb 16, 2016 5:25 am Post subject:

Science fiction is reality. Very Happy

We're living in science fiction. But I was under the impression that this was just another corroboration of the theory of relativity? Not an out and out confirmation?

--A
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Fist and Faith · Posted: Sun Apr 03, 2016 12:58 pm Post subject:

OK, here's something that's bothered me for a long time. I'm not satisfied with the answer to how gravity works. This is from Brian Greene's article about this in the Smithsonian.

I'm Murrin · Posted: Sun Apr 03, 2016 2:31 pm Post subject:

That's the question the bit you quoted answers. Things move because spacetime is curved. The presence of matter warps it so that other matter falls toward it.
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Fist and Faith · Posted: Sun Apr 03, 2016 3:49 pm Post subject:

I see how the bit I quoted answers the question of the path objects will travel along. I do not see how it answers the question of why they bother traveling at all. Why must there be motion? If the Enterprise was big enough to transport an Earth-size planet a few light-seconds from us, space-time between us would be warped like crazy. If I shot a projectile toward the other planet, the path it would take is determined (in part) by exactly how space-time is warped. But why do the two planets move toward each other without being pushed/thrown/shot? What sets them on the path of the warped space-time?
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I'm Murrin · Posted: Sun Apr 03, 2016 8:01 pm Post subject:

Gravity. This is like asking why an object on a slope will roll down instead of staying where it is.
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Fist and Faith · Posted: Sun Apr 03, 2016 8:34 pm Post subject:

That is what I'm asking. Laughing

Telling me that space-time is warped is telling me which direction things will move. I do not understand how it is also telling me why they bother moving at all.
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JIkj fjds j · Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2016 12:00 pm Post subject:

Because everything in the universe is falling through space (at the same time) - I'm sure the trampoline/bowling ball/marble metaphor, is slightly misleading. The marble has no effect on the trampoline. However, the marble could affect a silk tablecloth.

wayfriend · Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2016 3:12 pm Post subject:

Things move because gravity applies an attractive force to objects, pure and simple. Whether this results in a stable orbit or a direct collision depends on what other motion has already been imparted to the objects.

This force can be modeled as a warp in space time. In this model, the amount of force is shown by the steepness of the slope. The steeper the slope, the more the object is impelled in the "downward" direction.

But it's not a real slope. In a real slope (a hillside, for example), a force of gravity pulling downwards imparts a force in a lateral direction - to the left or right. The ball rolls "towards" the downhill direction.

In other words, in a real slope, an ubiquitous unseen force (gravity) moves an object towards another object. In the model of gravity, the two objects attract each other all by themselves.
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Fist and Faith · Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2016 3:44 pm Post subject:

Are you saying we still don't know "how something here can reach out across empty space and pull on something there"? Einstein gave us a way of visualizing and calculating it, but he did not give us the mechanism? Because that's how it looks to me.
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