GRAVITATIONAL WAVES DETECTED 100 YEARS AFTER EINSTEIN’S PREDICTION

[mirth]

^ As usual, Sir Slash cuts to the essence of the scientific method...   ::)   O0

Gravity sags boobs. Gravity must be stopped.

[undercovergeek]

In the right place at the right time saggy boobs are ok

Just saggy, not like a pair of spaniels ears or anything

[Pete Dero]

So....? 2 Black holes have merged... so what? Does it mean anything to non theoretical physicists, other than you can detect gravitational waves? ::)

All knowledge gained is for the good of the human race. There are no direct applications right now, but who knows where this discovery will lead.

Plus some of the spin off knowledge from just being able to detect the waves could filter down to you life.

I guess this is an new way to 'look' at the universe.  It can detect objects (e.g dark matter, colliding black holes,...) we couldn't detect until now. 

Scientists have relied primarily on observations with electromagnetic radiation (visible light, x-rays, radio waves, microwaves, etc.) to learn about and understand objects and phenomena in the Universe. Each of these sources of information provides scientists with a different and complementary view of the universe, with exciting new discoveries occurring as each new window has been discovered.  Gravitational waves are not electromagnetic radiation. They are a completely different phenomena, carrying information about cosmic objects and events that is not carried by electromagnetic radiation.

There are no direct applications for our daily lives but for scientists this is massive.  For real scientific use however we will need more LIGO detectors.

It is mindblowing to know that Einstein predicted this 100 years ago using only his brain and it took the rest of the world 100 years to come up with the technology to confirm his findings.

[MikeGER]

So....? 2 Black holes have merged... so what? Does it mean anything to non theoretical physicists, other than you can detect gravitational waves? ::)

All knowledge gained is for the good of the human race. There are no direct applications right now, but who knows where this discovery will lead.

Plus some of the spin off knowledge from just being able to detect the waves could filter down to you life.

in wargaming terms: its a new tier opened up: "Gravitation Wave Astronomy"
strange things will bee seen in the universe and to understand those the theory of gravitation and the 3 other elementary forces have to be honed.
several great unification of the forces theories in the making can be better understood and brought to test by the exclusion principle, (sort out those that don't work to explain new things seen with the upcoming gravitation wave telescopes)

understanding the unification theory in the (very) long run there could be be a way to 'produce'  (or maybe even counter) gravitational force without the need of large masses.

now the spin offs:
- a gravitation wave sensor array (kind of a passive Sonar)  that can track large moving objects just by the gravitation wake they produce.  we start with seeing ultra large stellar objects, asteroids, Super carriers and large commercial vessels, then down to tanks, trucks, cars ...and finally (fat)persons,

...theoretical this can go down to elementary particles in a lab experimental set up (now quantum effect get into play and then it get really interesting wired twisted .... i have to discuss it with Sheldon in the canteen  ;) ) 

- we get a bust in all kind of laser interferometry, so better measurements for all scientific and technical disciplines


   

[besilarius]

Gravity sags boobs. Gravity must be stopped.  Mirth

It's the Law.

[JasonPratt]

What Mike and Pete said.

One side effect of this achievement -- although it still won't immediately translate into practical applications -- is that it helps strengthen models of astrophysics which rely primarily on relatively weak gravitational interactions to explain phenomena instead of models relying primarily on electromagnetic forces (which are vastly much stronger than gravitational forces and so which, consequently, we understand a lot better because we can study them more directly). One of the more obscure scientific problems is why gravitational forces (apparently) make so much more difference than electromagnetics at the macro-level. Not that electromagnetics make no difference at all -- they make a huge difference, too -- but our primary models have been gravitational instead.

Putting it another way, for more than a hundred years already we've had tools that can measure electromagnetic behavior directly. You can buy them in stores at no great cost, or make them yourself following some (relatively) simple instructions if you have some (relatively) simple parts.

This is the first operational success of a tool which relates to observing gravity forces like an ohm meter that you can buy down at Dollar General or build in a Lego kit. The reason we're able to talk to each other on an internet forum right now is because we can detect and gauge and manipulate and generate electromagnetic forces so well that you can buy something like that or a kit for a child to make one, so easily.

This measurement is literally the first step (after many decades of even trying to learn how to take that first step) on a similar path of development -- a path similar to what led us to me typing this out on a Surface Pro 3, that was inexpensive enough (despite its power) for me to buy, and that people understood enough to create and make work properly (or properly enough for me not to send the thing back for a refund anyway. ;) )

[Barthheart]

[JasonPratt]

It quite literally opens up a new field of magic, in other words. (Where magic == being able to contribute effects into natural history beyond what the natural system would have produced, or would have otherwise produced, from its own automatic ping-ponging and fluxing reactions and counter-reactions.)

[JasonPratt]

Re dark matter, and dark energy for that matter: those are sort of placeholders saying that we've learned that our primary astrophysics models are somehow hugely wrong -- although right enough that we can figure out now the degree to which they're hugely wrong somehow. In our current models, the way the universe observably behaves requires vastly (and I mean VASTLY) much more electromagnetic energy and more mass, than our observations otherwise can account for (even with black holes in the mix -- one theory thus being that there are vastly many more black holes than our standard models predict).

Gravity forces aren't electromagnetic forces, but do interact with them a lot. We shouldn't expect ahead of time that learning how to do with gravity what we've learned how to do with electromagnetism, will surely help shine a light on this inferred mass and inferred energy -- we might eventually learn instead that our mistake is more fundamental than that, expecting mass and/or electromagnetic energy to be part of the account in that way or to that degree. Or we might find the missing (but inferred) mass and energy that we can't detect yet (thus "dark") but which is making so very, very, very much difference in how our universe works. We might even discover both how to detect the inferred but unobserved mass and/or energy AND ALSO that we're including them wrongly in our models for how the universe work (and maybe should be including something else instead). We just don't know yet.

[bbmike]

It also puts us one step closer to joining the 'others' of the Fermi Paradox.

[Bison]

It also puts us one step closer to joining the 'others' of the Fermi Paradox.

So basically we're F**ked.

[Barthheart]

Not necessarily. This could provide us with the knowledge to get past The Great Filter.  O0

[mirth]

Not necessarily. This could provide us with the knowledge to get past The Great Filter.  O0

So we can finally reach Sha Ka Ree?

[Barthheart]

Not necessarily. This could provide us with the knowledge to get past The Great Filter.  O0

So we can finally reach Sha Ka Ree?

Filter not Barrier....  :P

[Sir Slash]

You know, 300 years ago, you all would have been burned at the stake.