How are gravitational waves applied in science and in everyday life?
How are gravitational waves applied in science and in everyday life?
Learn about the significance of gravitational waves in science and in everyday life.
Courtesy of Northwestern University (A Britannica Publishing Partner)
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Courtesy of Northwestern University (A Britannica Publishing Partner)Learn about the significance of gravitational waves in science and in everyday life.
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© MinutePhysics (A Britannica Publishing Partner)Learn how the solar system, which formed from a roughly spherical cloud, became flat.
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© MinutePhysics (A Britannica Publishing Partner)Learn how GPS satellites are affected by relativity.
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© MinutePhysics (A Britannica Publishing Partner)A brief overview of space expansion.
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© MinutePhysics (A Britannica Publishing Partner)Learn about common physics misconceptions such as how light is affected by gravity and velocity measurements in special relativity.
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© Open University (A Britannica Publishing Partner)Learn about the element of indeterminacy in Niels Bohr's interpretation of quantum mechanics and about Albert Einstein's objections to indeterminacy.
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Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.This 1948 video shows the opening of the Mount Palomar Observatory, near San Diego. For decades the observatory's 200-inch reflector was the world's largest telescope. Its primary mirror weighed 14 tons and took 13 years to make, and, as the video shows, assembling the telescope was a massive engineering undertaking. The opening ceremonies were attended by many prominent scientists, including physicist Albert Einstein, shown here talking with fellow Nobel laureate Robert Millikan.
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© MinutePhysics (A Britannica Publishing Partner)Learn how the complete equation for energy in the theory of relativity is not E = mc2.
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© MinutePhysics (A Britannica Publishing Partner)A brief description and history of Albert Einstein's special theory of relativity.
Transcript
Gravitational waves were predicted by Einstein just a year after he developed his theory of general relativity about what gravity is. Even when he made that prediction, he actually wrote himself, "Yes, these waves must be produced, but there's no way we'll ever detect them." He was convinced. There was no doubt.
There was no discussion, oh, let's think about how one day we could detect them. That discussion started 50 years later by other scientists. Up until now, we had this indirect evidence, which was quite robust and there was widespread acceptance in the scientific community that black holes exist. However, we had never detected emission of any type that would come directly from the black hole.
That kind of emission by the nature of black holes is only gravitational waves. So up until now, we didn't have detectors like the LIGO detectors that were sensitive enough to detect gravitational wave emission. Had you asked him back then, "Why are you curious about understanding gravity? Why do you want to develop a mathematical theory that 10 people on this Earth can understand?"
His answer probably would not have been that informative or that interesting about how it would affect people's lives. And yet right now, our GPS technology, the technology that allows our phones to show us the map and say, "Ah, this is where we are," would not be possible if we didn't know about Einstein's theory of general relativity. Because this theory affects how satellites move and minuscule corrections to their motions.
Had we not be able to do, we would be getting our location wrong by hundreds and hundreds of feet. And hence, GPS technology would not work. These predictions that an amazing mind produced a century ago and never imagined would affect our lives in any way, now came to be. Now they become part of observational astronomy, everyday, practical, observational astronomy that we're opening this brand new window of observational astronomy into the universe for the decades to come.
There was no discussion, oh, let's think about how one day we could detect them. That discussion started 50 years later by other scientists. Up until now, we had this indirect evidence, which was quite robust and there was widespread acceptance in the scientific community that black holes exist. However, we had never detected emission of any type that would come directly from the black hole.
That kind of emission by the nature of black holes is only gravitational waves. So up until now, we didn't have detectors like the LIGO detectors that were sensitive enough to detect gravitational wave emission. Had you asked him back then, "Why are you curious about understanding gravity? Why do you want to develop a mathematical theory that 10 people on this Earth can understand?"
His answer probably would not have been that informative or that interesting about how it would affect people's lives. And yet right now, our GPS technology, the technology that allows our phones to show us the map and say, "Ah, this is where we are," would not be possible if we didn't know about Einstein's theory of general relativity. Because this theory affects how satellites move and minuscule corrections to their motions.
Had we not be able to do, we would be getting our location wrong by hundreds and hundreds of feet. And hence, GPS technology would not work. These predictions that an amazing mind produced a century ago and never imagined would affect our lives in any way, now came to be. Now they become part of observational astronomy, everyday, practical, observational astronomy that we're opening this brand new window of observational astronomy into the universe for the decades to come.