Seeing gravity waves? DUH!

[James Lehman]

I just saw a program on TV the other night about gravity. It was all really fascinating... until they described the cutting edge of the astronomical measurements there of...

There are two 4Km long sets of pipes. These are basically laid out on the surface of The Earth as a simple right angle. There is a laser at one end of each and a mirror at the other end. The idea is, if gravity waves pass through this structure they will distort space-time differently on one axis vs. the other. After all, it is a warp of space. This would appear as a change in the relative length of the pipes.

My immediate thought was Duh! If a gravity wave is going to distort time-space, the it would obviously distort everything in that time-space, including the photons shooting down both of those 4Km tubes.

The whole idea of time-space is based on the motion of the fastest thing.......... light!

It's like trying to measure how much something stretched... with a rubber ruler!

James.

[soforene]

Do "The End of The World" sirens go off if someone breaks one of the beams?

[dar303]

From Wikipedia:

"A passing gravitational wave will then slightly stretch one arm as it shortens the other. This is precisely the motion to which an interferometer is most sensitive."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravita...wave_detectors

[White-Light]

This is what you really need to be worried about and it starts tommorrow:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencete...d-halt-it.html

[James Lehman]

"Critics say the LHC could create a black hole which expands until it swallows the Earth"

Oh well.

James.

[gottaluvlasers]

ya know something-

im all for experimenting. im all for exploring the universe and cosmos and depths of the oceans.

BUT-

doesnt it seem as if humans are getting to the point where we are REALLY starting to overstep our bounds?? cloning? home made black holes?

i think we need to learn when its time to sit back and not try to find the answer for something.

the LHS project is a marvel of technology. YES! if it works and we get answers to the begining of the univers, WOW. HOWEVER- now we got SERIOUSLY SERIOUSLY bad problems on our hands now...

religion? everything most of us learned growing up in school? wars? i think we as humans are fu*ked up enough on our own. we dont need 5 billion dollar projects to help us get MORE pissed at each other and bring "religion" into things!!

what will this do for us if it works 100% correctly!?!?!? NOTHING!!! it wont cure cancer. it wont stop wars. it isnt going to help the economy. it isnt going to help children who are starving!

this is $5,000,000,000!!!!! thats A LOT of freakin cash! 20 countries got together to help pay for it!?!? kinda funny how we cant get more than 3 countries in the same room and talk about peace and helping its people!

i dont know it just doesnt make too much sense to me. i LOVE the theories of "Space and Time." i have read MANY books on it. Hawkings, einstein, parallel universe...LOTS of great stuff. the *THEORY* of this machine is fascinating, but i think $5,000,000,000 could have been spent ALOT more responsibly...


just my opinions.

-Marc

[dar303]

I think it's mainly bullshit to scare people and sell newspapers.

I say: Bring on the Higgs Boson!

[James Lehman]

I agree. The more we know about the fabric of reality the better. We will never get the whole picture. But we should always keep looking for it!

James.

[White-Light]

I just hope I get to use my laser before it swallows us.

[Pitts]

Yeah it was on the news down here this morning...

Thre are serious questions like NZ being the first to see the new day do we go in the hole first ?? be just our luck.

But apparently the good news is children are still dying at about 20,000 a day from starvation.. people are still shooting each other.
Young soldiers are dying and being injured in the middle East.

People are invading other peoples countries !!!.

I wonder what good they could do with that money ???

Yep, same crap different day.

A bit like that old hospital sying.

"The operation was a success but the patient died"

I hope all the PHd's and the like are happy as we all go down the black plug hole... it worked.... it worked .....

The way mankind acts it may be the best solution, after all it is going to happen one day anyway. I was kinda counting on a trillion years or so yet.

Have a happy day anyway..

Ray
NZ