Saturday, December 2, 2017

What happens when a gravitational wave passes by?

In this video I explain what exactly happens to the geometry of space when a gravitational wave passes by. I haven't seen many videos doing that (actually none). Most of them just say that a gravitational wave squeezes and stretches things but do not explain what does it actually mean. Or, they they show a nice animation of spreading waves, usually on a two-dimensional surface, which is very nice but does not have much to do with gravitational waves.

I do not discuss other details, like the sources of gravitational waves, their strength, recent discoveries, etc. because those topics seem to be discussed aplenty.

So, if you wandered, what gravitational waves were about, here you go: