Gravitational Waves

Being waves, they are ripples in space-time. Like water waves are ripples in water, or sound waves are ripples in the density of air.

Lets not get into wave-particle duality unless we have to.

On a philosophical point, why do we need to prove the existence of everything? I am prepared to believe my senses on that one.

Testing a theory of everything is a different matter of course. Such a theory might have consequences which are easy to measure if you know what you are looking for.

I don't see how finding gravity waves helps us towards a theory of everything, apart from ruling out those theories where they don't exist.

The graviton is predicted to be massless, and also spectacularly uncommon in real world situations. see the quote below.

...detecting gravitons is much (much much etc...) harder. A famous example considers an ideal detector with the mass of the planet Jupiter, around  10 to power27 kilograms, placed in close orbit around a neutron star, which is a very strong source of gravitons. A back-of-the-envelope calculation reveals that even in this extremely unrealistic scenario, it would take 100 years to detect a single graviton! The star also emits neutrinos in addition to gravitons; in fact, many more neutrinos than gravitons. And neutrinos are much easier to detect than gravitons. In fact, we can calculate that for every graviton that is detected in this scenario, around 10 to the power 33 neutrinos will be detected. So we will never be able to find the one graviton among the 10 to power 33 neutrinos.

I'm not holding my breath. Of course if we look in additional rolled up dimensions it may be easier. Of course.

Bruce

Dozey posted:

Being waves, they are ripples in space-time. Like water waves are ripples in water, or sound waves are ripples in the density of air.

Lets not get into wave-particle duality unless we have to.

I understand ripples in water and air. They move about in response to stimulus.

What is this space-time thing made of? ( I understand the stimulus )

Simple answer, complex concept. It is the 3 Euclidean dimensions plus a fourth-time.

Effectively it imagines space and time as a continuum. See relativity.

GraemeH posted:

Apparently finding the waves points us toward understanding 'a theory of everything'...

Do we then have to build another machine to prove the existence of everything?....

G

 

What's the improbability of that happening.

Sounds awful.

42

I guess the important application of this will be in knowing which interconnects to use to counter such a phenomenon.

I want interconnects that float just above the floor.