Posted on 12/10/2019 2:21:38 PM PST by LibWhacker
I know the physics, but the bottom line is that as with all physical principles, we know what is observed but know little about the mechanisms that define those observations. Why does the moon ‘grab’ onto a spacecraft (e.g. the Apollo craft) and ‘pull’ it towards the moon? We know it happens, but we don’t really know why.
The official Caltech support site to my local LIGO (Hanford), says down to 1/10,000 the width of the proton charge nucleus. Since that web material gets reviewed by incoming graduate students all the time it is probably correct. The other statistic that amazes me is the vacuum inside the 4km tubes at a pressure lower than interstellar space (and maintained for long periods).
Because in the vicinity of gravity space is curved. This manifests to us as (surprise) curved movement in 3D space.
“We know that it works and but don’t know why.”
True, and we don’t know if it works everywhere the same way. It’s an assumption. When you know as little as we do about the mechanics of existence, you have to be satisfied with the explanations we have for what we can observe. It’s certainly better than knowing nothing, but ultimately we know infinitesimally little in the context of what is knowable.
In space, a cat can hear a can opener.
This to me is a new revelation. That is a lot of mass and yet:
The effects of gravitational waves are so small that you’d need to be extremely close to a merger to feel them.
How is mass converted to gravitational waves?
I know precisely what you mean. We know the effect of forces like gravity, but not the cause, other than “mass”. But why does mass result in gravity? General relativity explains it as a counterbalancing force to pressure caused by the Pauli exclusion principal, but I don’t really get it. So I guess that means it’s a quantum mechanical effect that causes a curvature in space-time. A space-time curvature being equivalent to a change in velocity, since velocity is a function of both space and time. The question continues. Why do all electrons have the same charge? Why is the speed of light what it is? What ultimately determines all the other physical constants? No clue.
According to quantum theory, quantum systems can exist at the same time in various states defined by probabilities. You won’t know which unique state the system is in until you look , at which time the probability function collapses into a single state that you see.
If Jeffrey Epstein is part of a quantum system, he could exist in the state of death, having killed himself , in the state of death, having been murdered, or in the state of being alive in some some witness protection program with a dead patsy’s body having been substituted . Unfortunately we may never know because when they looked, the independent expert coroner said they screwed everything up.. The Epstein quantum system is destroyed and there are no do-overs allowed in quantum mechanics.
I am not a physicist, but I do read FR and QAnon.
“pressure lower than interstellar space”
I’m intrigued by the idea that we may be creating the profoundest sustained vacuums and lowest temperatures in the entire universe, but there’s bound to be something somewhere that outdoes us humble humans even in those things. Or maybe not.
If mass was converted to gravitational waves that suggest that mass is continuously being converted into gravitational waves.
If mass is continuously being converted into gravitational waves does that not suggest that eventually all mas will be converted into gravitational waves?
There seems to be quite a lot to be unpacked from this revelation.
People look at those large concrete tubes sprawling over the desert and assume that the concrete is instrumental in maintaining the circular shape around the enclosed vacuum. Actually that’s not the case (except for protection from environmental impingement by things like roving vehicles and wayward bullets). Rather it is the 14 gauge (or whatever) curved stainless steel sheet metal keeping the atmosphere out.
And the “real world” is very strange and counterintuitive. Otherwise understanding nature would be easy.
And neither did his banker.
The mass equivalent of kinetic energy. Energy and mass are equivalent; if you know one, you know the other through E=mc2. In other words, perhaps what is being converted to gravitational waves is the kinetic energy of the system (not its mass, per se) but which, of course, can nevertheless be expressed in solar masses. I was reading elsewhere on the net someone who said a star the size of the sun, which is flying through space at 40% the speed of light is packing with it the equivalent of one solar mass worth of kinetic energy. So that's what is going on: The kinetic energy of these two merging black holes is equivalent to the mass energy of three of our suns. And that kinetic energy, not the mass, is what is being released as gravitational waves.
Now, I know your next question will probably be, "Yes, but, how does kinetic energy get converted into gravitational waves?" LOL, don't ask! This was hard enough to come up with. :-)
Remember, I'm not a physicist. Just a math major who took some physics. And not enough either. I wish I had taken a lot more.
Normally, in my experience kinetic energy is converted to heat or deformation of an object.
So, I would think that the merging black holes would create heat and crush each other during their merger.
But since black holes are exotic mater, I can see that your explanation could be correct.
Thanks for the explanation.
Right in your wheelhouse then! The deformation of an object... in this case a propagating deformation of space itself; namely, a gravitational wave.
Good point
Well put.
Does that mean that merging black holes cause global warming?
Greta needs to know about this. Where is Algore when we need him.
I think he’s on a manbearpig hunt in the Himalayas.
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