Gravitational Waves Detected

[robj144]

I know several friends and colleagues that have been working on the LIGO project for years. This is what they've been hoping for:

http://www.cnn.com/2016/02/11/us/gra...eat/index.html

[HDRider]

On the one hand, I find stuff like this to be absolutely fascinating. On the other? Utterly useless. It's cool that they've detected something that's been long theorized, but is there any practical application for this new knowledge?

One of those interesting dichotomies of life, I guess!

[mc1]

"And when we hear the universe, we will learn about the secret life of black holes -- their birth, their death, their marriage, their feeding. We will hear when a black hole eats a neutron star," Marka said.

sounds like a starlequin romance.

[Andromeda]

This was all over our local news because several Rochester Institute of Technology researchers were involved. I think this is great news and I am following it closely.


www.rit.edu/showcase/index.php?id=319

[fazool]

Originally Posted by HDRider

... Utterly useless. ...

Utterly useless only if you don't want to have the foundational understanding upon which to build "useful" knowledge.

When they discovered photons, that was "useless" but it then allowed them to create new knowledge.

When they discovered that silica can transmit electricity selectively, it was utterly useless. But that knowledge allowed us to discover knowledge for semiconductors.

The list goes on and on.

[Geof S.]

It's a remarkable achievement. Scientists have been attempting to do this for a long time without success.

My dad was a physicist and spent some time attempting to build a gravity wave detector back in the 1970s. One of the problems they faced back then was building a device sensitive enough to detect an extremely faint signal from space without being overwhelmed by all the "noise" here on earth.

[Bingoccc]

I've been watching the various announcement videos on YouTube. It's amazing. Kind of an "Einstein Rules" moment.

And yes, It's fundamental knowledge that will lead to big things some day. I've watched some talks recently about how GPS needs to account for the difference in time, caused by the difference in gravity, at the satellites to have the accuracy it does. Heady stuff.

[architype]

Pretty cool! Lots of smart people out there quietly working on some amazing stuff.

[Larry Pattis]

Because....SCIENCE!

[Borderdon]

I don't pretend to understand this discovery, or it's implications, but to ask the questions is deeply embedded in our dna.
"Foundational" expresses it nicely I think.

[ewalling]

Originally Posted by fazool

When they discovered photons, that was "useless" but it then allowed them to create new knowledge.

What have the photons ever done for us? That what I'd like to know!

[SteveS]

Is there anything that can't be argued about here?

BTW - What might be useless know often leads to great breakthroughs later. This discovery will eventually allow us travel at speeds that exceed the speed of light.

If we can further harness that power, we might be able to use it instead of adhesives to hold guitars together.

[Glennwillow]

Originally Posted by robj144

I know several friends and colleagues that have been working on the LIGO project for years. This is what they've been hoping for:

http://www.cnn.com/2016/02/11/us/gra...eat/index.html

That is so cool! I had not heard about this until now. Very cool!

Over and over again, I have been surprised -- stunned, really -- at what Einstein was able to theorize through the use of mathematics and physics, without measuring anything. I can't fathom what kind of mind could come up with something like the general theory of relativity. I would have loved to have been able to know Einstein, or at least have some conversations with him.

But... now we are making one more major discovery that Einstein was right about one more of his predictions based on his general theory of relativity.

I can't quite get over how fantastic this is, a discovery of gravitational waves from the merging of a couple of black holes way out there somewhere in space.

What can we do with this? I don't know... For a start, we can open the door to learning more about the universe. Nobody ever knows where these discoveries will lead, but knowing more about the foundations of the universe is what physics is all about. Engineers worry about how to apply science. But scientists just want to know.

Wow!

- Glenn

[mc1]

i'd like to think that one day we can use this knowledge to develop an invention that will speed the opening of guitars in ways far beyond our current capabilites.

[Glennwillow]

Originally Posted by mc1

i'd like to think that one day we can use this knowledge to develop an invention that will speed the opening of guitars in ways far beyond our current capabilites.

I think this new discovery might help us get closer. We could use alternating gravity waves instead of vibrations. Then again, the guitar might end up in some other place in time and we might not be able to find it... But... you know... people could work on that...

- Glenn