Einstein Was Right: Gravitational Waves 101 | Rainer Weiss | TEDxNatick

Dr. Weiss provides a short and simple explanation of how to find a gravitational wave, a discovery that proved a prediction that Einstein made 100 years earlier. He describes how his team developed the LIGO detector to search for these elusive events and how they can be used to better understand the cosmos. In 2017, Dr. Weiss was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics, along with Kip Thorne and Barry Barish, for seminal contributions to the LIGO detector and the observation of gravitational waves. Dr. Weiss is Professor of Physics, Emeritus, at MIT. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at www.ted.com/tedx

[@umbertopappalardi8667]

I searched so long for a good detailed and scientific explanation of gravitational waves and finally found it. Thank you, Mr. Weiss for the insightful talk!

[@TengouX]

Love how this guy calmly states that modern day GPS technology is more subtle and precise than the technology that got a man to the moon.

[@josephlau13d77]

he won the Nobel prize. Gravitational waves in linearized gravity can be described as manifestly observable Riemann curvature tensors from Einstein's field equations. The Ricci tensor will vanish while the Riemann tensor can be nonzero as well. The components of the affine connection (Christoffel coefficients) can be given by partial differentiation. The usual notion of 'gravitational force' disappears in general relativity, replaced instead by the idea that freely falling bodies follow geodesics in spacetime. Given a spacetime metric gab and a set of spacetime coordinates xa, geodesic trajectories are given by the equation as where τ is a proper time as measured by an observer travelling along the geodesic. Dirac equation is relativistic and proves the existence of antimatter. The Klein-Gordon equation with mass parameter is... Perturbation theories and quantum fluctuations. Solutions of the equation are complex-valued functions; the Laplacian acts on the space variables only. The equation is often abbreviated as where μ = mc/ħ, and □ is the d'Alembert operator. The Dirac equation relativistic spectrum is, however, easily recovered if the orbital-momentum quantum number l is replaced by total angular-momentum quantum number j. In January 1926, Schrödinger submitted for publication instead his equation, a non-relativistic approximation that predicts the Bohr energy levels of hydrogen without fine structure. .. where gαβ is the inverse of the metric tensor that is the gravitational potential field, g is the determinant of the metric tensor, ∇μ is the covariant derivative, and Γσμν is the Christoffel symbol that is the gravitational force field.

[@realitynowassigned]

@@josephlau13d77 are you getting your notes confused with your youtube replies

[@aidancanoli]

@@josephlau13d77 okay matt from pbs spacetime

[@you2tooyou2too]

@@josephlau13d77 You seem to have posted a broken drivel (many missing & undefined terms) rather than a cursory review for clarification.

[@amstorm8954]

getting to the moon was easyer than shipping to america :D

[@ev.c6]

Gravitatinal waves! What a great time to be alive. I hope to be able to live long enough to see a proper model of gravitational waves in form of particles or something like that.

[@etrenomics9636]

E. Camilo I’m developingHey paper the discussions discusses some hallucinations I hadduring my severe stroke at that I suffered several months ago I’ve come In these hallucinations an equation was revealed to me that relates the permittivity of free space to mass in the speed of light from this equation I believe that derivations can be created that may be tied to gather gravity and light and timeup with equation that relates thepermittivity of space to mass and the speed of light

[@SuperChimcham]

etrenomics check out Theoria Aphophasis on KZbin- he explains how Einstein was wrong and Tesla was right and what gravity really is

[@epayat]

YOUR HEART HAS ALREADY SUCH ONE! JUST USE IT MEN !

[@epayat]

E. Camilo ANIMAL BODY HEART SINUSODIAL NODE INCLUDES A RECEIVER SENDER PAIR OPERATING ON GRAVITATIONAL WAVES AS MEDIUM. THAT IS WHY YOU CAN CONTACT YOUR LOVER IN ANOTHER GALAXY EVEN

[@ralos5930]

@@SuperChimcham Glad you have a brain! Wheeler destroys these assholes completely. It's hollywood science with magical virtual particles. might aswell be talking about unicorns.

[@raghav2198]

The passion with which he explains the discovery is infectious!

[@julianstaniewski1371]

Well why does this only have so many views? It is a great in depth explication, well done

[@hongyuzhang5631]

Human intelligence is distributed normally, which is unfortunate sometimes

[@Rico-Suave_]

Amazing, there should have been a detail introduction of the speaker and how much he contributed to science and our understanding of the world we live in

[@AustralianGQ]

Great talk on gravitational waves. very exciting stuff.

[@themule137]

I think that this talk does a pretty good job of showing that a lot of math and science is perspective, not simply prescriptive. It's humbling.

[@mxrkxo]

He is really delightful in explanation

[@nbvw3]

And he is 87 as well. I hope I am half as "there" as he is at his age!

[@akumar7366]

How beautiful the human mind is, uplifting wonderous unique ♥

[@kirbydonoho5707]

informative video. i loved it!

[@merrysfuneral1507]

My brain exploded. I am a mechanical engineer and it was too much for now. Now I have to digest all the info for the gravitation.

[@frodobaggins6450]

Seeing this you think "how did Einstein even know all this"?

[@aidancanoli]

he was literally a genius or an alien lmao he would just stare into the wall and imagine all this and then try to make it mathematically work

[@nishanyanrao117]

even i think like tht...i guess he is not from earth or he got some information outside of earth

[@78anurag]

When he was a teenager he was pretty much convinced the universe was a geometric model

[@aidancanoli]

i don't understand what the frequency is. is it the frequency of the gravitational wave oscillation right, the energy? the sound thing is just for visualization i would assume?

[@fjs1111]

Outstanding.

[@sayan1667]

I wish Albert was there and explaining his theories.

[@dboydboy1000]

So where are these speeches hosted at? Ive been trying to attend one for years...

[@HelpMe_OrNot]

Ted’s house

[@you2tooyou2too]

re 2:30 Isn't the lattice a constant time surface? The clocks on that surface would stay synchronized, and clocks closer to the objects would go slower, and clocks very near a BH would appear to be frozen. . Perhaps it is obvious, but isn't gravity an effect of time-space distortion by mass, rather than a force, just as "centrifugal force" and "Coriolis force" are effects of situations rather than like the strong, weak, and EM forces? (I might reasonably extrapolate that at some time we would resolve the last three to effects also. ... which begs the question, 'What is a force?")

[@MyPierre55]

I'm so lucky to live in that era

[@charlieangkor8649]

How do the gravitational waves actually affect the apparatus? 1) locally change the speed of light 2) make the mirrors actually move in relation to each other 3) locally make space grow and shrink 4) make time run locally faster and slower 5) some combination thereof?

[@Engineeringuncovered]

Number 3. That’s what changes the timing of the rays and makes them not be synchronized anymore

[@tankionlineuser100]

I'll try to explain as much as i know. 1)it stays the same, light does not need a medium to travel and there exists a vacuum inside 2)They stay at the same place, 40kg mirrors(really thick) 3)exactly, so light travels more and less distance accordingly 4)no this doesn't happen Basically it's just time = (distance/speed), due to the expansion and contraction the distance changes, so does the time and subsequently the phase difference between the light waves(lasers). So when they interfere, they don't cancel each other and this difference in the final result is what is seen.

[@charlieangkor8649]

so the Guv (geometry of spacetime) is measured in what SI units? lumens? meters? amps per cubic volt? ohms per square second?

[@DylanCVlogTV]

Its measured as a tensor, the dots he showed about half way through is a very simplified visualization of what a tensor does. Tensors are essentially matrices that are vectors on each point on a plane.

[@aidancanoli]

​@@DylanCVlogTV yeah Tuv and Guv are both tensors related by the 8pi

[@aidancanoli]

i think you would just create a unit length though for the ricci curavture which is part of Guv and then the Guv ends up being 1/length^2 so i think u can use meters. or anything u want. i don't really have any idea just from what i saw on wikipedia that seems to be a case. but i do know its not really as much a value as it is a description of the geodesic geometry that we can comprehend to describe particles affected by spacetime and how particles effect spacetime. we don't necessarily need to know the exact units, rather define points and their spacing to see the final outcome, the resulting einstein field.

[@dakotapeters5654]

Did anyone notice his shadow? Talking about the first picture I saw before clicking on the video.

[@SJ-to3dt]

People do a lot of visualization about the physical evidence of several of these theoretical constructs. Flatland ( a fictional novella) has been used for the same purpose to visualize higher dimensional objects. But the truth is, once we acquire the physical evidence of such a nature, people need to understand it's real characteristics. And that's what gravitational waves are: the physical evidence of the general theory of relativity.

[@markjmaxwell9819]

A field that has not yet been explained to satisfaction. So glad we don't understand everything yet . Gravity is a gift to be used to our advantage.

[@charlieangkor8649]

Cant you understand the distortion of spacetime as local variations of speed of light in undistorted spacetime? Like index of refraction? Put some sugar and water into a glass, you have variable index of refraction, light travels in curvy paths, voila, a desktop general relativity. Maybe its even anisotropic, like birefrigent crystal. Maybe the gravity just slows down the light around?

[@fitodibene167]

why do the lights cancel?

[@silverth1002]

he rushed the speech like he has an ambulance waiting

[@ranjeetsingh-fw1ij]

Hahaha

[@zitttu]

and here's me thinking maybe 1.5x will get to the point faster

[@zitttu]

forget it 2x

[@carnap355]

impressive considering he is 86 yo

[@HelpMe_OrNot]

@@carnap355 he’s passionate about it. It’s beautiful to see him explaining something so excitedly.

[@handleismyhandle]

If gravity waves represent a variation in spacetime, they can be observed with clocks.

[@aidancanoli]

i think thats where we are headed, especially as we develop more physically accurate clocks derived directly from mc^2=hf.

[@handleismyhandle]

@@aidancanoli Check out "Search for Frame-Dragging-Like Signals Close to Spinning Superconductors" Apparently this was a legitimate study. . . Very strange. They claim that frame dragging effects are greatly amplified around superconductors. Basically, that a rotating object (like the earth) will show a difference on a clock depending on whether it is traveling around with, or against, the direction of rotation, but the effect is massively more pronounced in the vicinity of a rotating superconductor.

[@aidancanoli]

​@@handleismyhandle hmm interesting thank u

[@magnushelliesen]

You ought to write this in a paper and not in a KZbin comment :P

[@concertslivehd3336]

Indeed!

[@vaibhavkumar3106]

Ligo india i want to visit there

[@Charango123quena]

You will spend most of your time in the toilet after drinking the water...

[@_H_A_R_S_H_I_T_]

@@Charango123quena What???

[@guersomfalcon7544]

0:40 How can you solve an equation if all of its elements are variables?

[@aidancanoli]

lmaoooo ikr like whats the solution haha boomers amirite

[@schieder1]

Because you observe and input variables like G=9.81m/s^2 until you have a solvable equation

[@TheAlexo95]

Was E-Stein in Space 101?

[@umerbinshabir6561]

Are there only 23k physists

[@TheDanko86]

We are like the fish in the water, unaware of the water.. until recently.

[@elseb80]

Big Respect … It is unbelievable how far we humans made it. Science can be so exciting, but unfortunately not all of us has access to these informations. Great Stuff and great Person with a lot of Humor ✌️👍😎

[@babarizam4525]

this is so advance stuff for me. I cant even find anything where and what he wants to see but then again I don't even understand equation of Einstein at all.

[@sadovniksocratus1375]

Different gravity-mass rotation = different gravity frequencies. Different gravity frequencies. = different gravity waves. # Gravity's influence is proportional to the masses of the object involved. But gravitational waves distort space only by a factor of 10^20. That means if there is a cosmic mass-gravity object 10^20 millimeters size (ten light years), a gravitation wave would distort space on one millimeter. Not more. # Gravity is the weakest phenomena in the Universe. Gravity is about 10^36 (10^41) times weaker than EM phenomena. # Therefore gravity-waves cannot be measured by any tools. To understand macro-gravity effect, needs to understand quantum-gravity. ===

[@quantumofspace1367]

Can you take a fresh look at the universe? PATENT 33869 An experiment is proposed, which is not difficult to understand, on the creation and study of super-powerful gravitational waves or the inconstancy of the speed of light in a vacuum. The choice is yours.

[@JoseGarcia-pt1iw]

the gravitational wave is only a measure of energy traveling through space (universe) and affect any sensitive electronic device.

[@charlieangkor8649]

Maybe the masses wiggle in​ space maybe light just travels faster horizontally and slower vertically. So you meaure the distance with laser and think the masses wiggled. According to Occam's razor the explanation with speed of light is better because it involves only 1 thing to change. While his explantion inolves a hundred of test masses to wiggle.

[@melmaciandissenter2324]

In this video, Rainer Weiss tells the whole world he doesn't understand Einstein at all ! ^^ Einstein came up with the Space-Time Curvature theory because it was objected to him that "gravitational waves" were too slow to explain Gravity. Indeed, Gravity is observably instantaneous and thus "waves" (which are limited to the speed of light) cannot explain observable reality !!! Finding an explanation for instantaneous Gravity is precisely what made Einstein a famous genius. The concept of Einstein's Space-Time curvature literally cancels the need for slow "gravitational waves" ... Science is going backward ! :(

[@qualquan]

Disappointed he did not discuss the nature of 3 solar worth of non photonic mass carried away by the GW at light speed. What do you call that kind of mass? Dark matter? Actually no one wants to discuss this question. Why?

[@wheczshmatovich]

Who else wishes this was their grandpa?

[@johnnyq4260]

11:59 "Nucular"

[@charlieangkor8649]

light and gravitational waves obviously dont travel the same speed when they desynchronized by 1.7 seconds god.

[@fto5935]

Lol on that time scale it's surprisingly simultaneous. Light is always a bit slower than c since space isn't a perfect vacuum. The medium slows it down. The fact that the delay is so minute shows their was an exceptionally empty space it traveled through.

[@aidancanoli]

well if gravitational waves travel truly uninterrupted, then makes sense over such a long distance there would be a delay and you would hope to see light slightly later. there's gas and other materials that have different refractive indices and can interact with light and slow it down. there was also probably a slight path difference too which probably doesn't affect it much. its surprising its so close actually considering how many things could get in the way.

[@charlieangkor8649]

Existence of gravitational waves can be proven even from Newton law. We have a falling stone 1kg, a=9.81 m/s. F=ma=9.81. Now we know gravity is not a force, just a deformation of spaceime, so F=0. 9.81=0. We have a contradiction. Now, anything follows out of a contradiction. Anything, including the existence of gravitational waves. A neat proof, isn't it? 😉

[@aidancanoli]

lmao wtf

[@justincase4812]

Do human beings see everything that is capable of happening as we are able to understand? Why shouldn't there be more. Are the human senses completely capable of detecting every single facet of the universe? There has to be more ways to sense things that occur not to our human knowledge that are just as fundamental as sight is to us. There has to be more fundamental sense that see the universe in completely different ways just as audio is entirely separate from visual. What could possibly be another sense to witness by?

[@europaeuropa3673]

If they eventually detect every gravitation wave possible, what is the payback in terms of making everyone's life better on Earth after all the time, effort, and money spent?

[@Engineeringuncovered]

Oh shut up you don’t care about making everyone’s life better, if you did you would burn every government to the ground

[@tanimmahfuz8689]

Maybe we can’t understand the implications now. But someday we will. Maybe someday understanding these gravitational waves will help us open portals to the universe (just a metaphor)

[@concertslivehd3336]

@@tanimmahfuz8689 they indeed open portals to the universe, if we are able to acces the gravitational wave and amplify it.. just like any other wave. Considering that we are able to bend space and time with a strong gravitational field... we could actually travel vast distances in space in little to no time. Us humans think of travel in linear motion as the only way possible to get from point A to point B which is pure Rubbish

[@glywnniswells9480]

I dont understand this very well why is it even important?What can we do with it?Is there a life hack in here somewhere?

[@concertslivehd3336]

We have known about gravitational waves from decades... just like any other wave.. it can be accessed and amplified!!! The atom itself is a source of gravity. Gravitational waves are able to bend space and time and we can do a lot of things with that. Interstellar travel could be a thing using gravity!! They just want us to believe that the only way to get to places is by travelling in linear motion which is pure BS.

[@epayat]

Truth number One: Einstein was right. There exist Gravitation and thus their waves. Truth number two: They travel not at (expected) speed of c but at much higher CxC = c2 speed. you can not even detect from which direction they are coming because they are that fast for this time domain. Truth Number three: Yes, It is possible to build a transmitter/receiver pair to use gravitation as transport medium for very long distances like between star systems. To communicate with another galaxy even speed of gravitational waves are not enough. To succeed this, one need to put a receiver/transmitter pair in front of a stargate which is opening to another galaxy of interest. Same person must know the transport protocol and thus must use the same. Therfore there must exist at least one common transport protocol already created for that purpose.

[@MikeRosoftJH]

That's nonsense already for the following reason: c*c isn't speed. Unit of speed is meter per second (or kilometer per hour, or the like). If speed of gravity were numerically equal to c*c, in what unit is it? Kilometer per second (300 000 times the speed of light)? Meter per second (300 000 000 times the speed of light)? Kilometer per hour (1 000 000 000 times the speed of light)? And how did you conclude that speed of gravitational waves were significantly faster than the speed of light? General relativity predicts that it's the same as the speed of light, and no information can propagate faster (this speed also being known as the speed of causality). And observations are consistent with this prediction. And we certainly were able to detect the direction where the gravitational wave has come from (detecting the wave at measurably different moments by different detectors). On occasion, we were able to connect the gravitational wave with an actual astronomical observation (a gamma ray burst and visible light from a 'kilonova' event - brighter than a nova but less bright than a supernova - from a neutron star collision). And communication by gravitational waves - gee, good luck at that. Technically, whenever a mass moves with acceleration in a gravitational field, this produces gravitational waves; but these waves are way too weak to be detectable. And stargates are science fiction, not something that actually exists.

[@epayat]

MikeRosoftJH why u have problem to take square of c?

[@MikeRosoftJH]

@@epayat Please read the above - c*c is not speed.

[@epayat]

MikeRosoftJH c is just a constant number I must remember you. Forgot already whole physics? Or you just try to defend your position with simple lies?

[@epayat]

MikeRosoftJH lets make a deal: We meet and I build you a phonon Emission transformer. With that device you obtain power out of exactly “nothing”. Soon you see this you gonna believe everything I tell you. Okay? Deal?

[@augustdilge6421]

Totally rubbish.

[@umbertopappalardi8667]

I searched so long for a good detailed and scientific explanation of gravitational waves and finally found it. Thank you, Mr. Weiss for the insightful talk!