Gravity wave detector

[Fallingstar1971]

Some time back space.com ran an article stating that the gravity wave detector did not pick up any waves, and instead produced "static" that led the scientist to speculate that we may live in a holographic universe.

If I understand the experiment correctly, then they are using a set a lasers with fixed mirrors and waiting for the time from one beam of light to be different from the second beam of light indicating the distance between the laser and the reflector have changed. This would indicate the presence of "gravity" waves......

But I think I see a problem..... If you warp space you warp time........IF I understand it correctly

If you warp time, then the laser could be "warped" to the reflector in the same amount of time that the straight shooting (non warped) laser takes to reach its relfector. therby you would miss the wave all together because the two lasers would remain synced in time. The space changes due to warping, time changes to the same warping, and after the wave passes everything resumes its "pre-wave" state. The lasers would be totally blind to this set of circumstances.


Just a thought

Star

 

[darkmatter4brains]

If I remember my GR correctly (it's been a while), gravitational wave effects (spacetime warpage) are only in one direction, which is orthogonal to the direction of travel. LIGO, the gravity wave detector, has two perpindicular arms, so one arm should be more strongly effected than the other, or if the wave is perfectly lined up with one arm, the only one effected, by the wave passing through the area. The time warpage will not cancel the space warpage. You can be sure if it did, these guys would have thought of it by now.

I know there's some ppl on here that are more up on their GR than me so correct me if I mixed things up a bit.

Also, this was LIGO's first phase only. And, you're correct - they detected nothing, which many expected at this level of sensitivity. But, in the next phase, they will increase the sensitivity and really should find something. If they don't this time, it will probably mean trouble!

 

[Fallingstar1971]

Yeah, my problem with that is this........

A number of years ago, the ESA and NASA got together and made a space probe and shot it to Mars..........

And missed the entire planet

Why?

Because the ESA used metric measurements and NASA used standard......

If they missed that, the most obvious of things that would pop right out at you, (This paper says miles, this one says kilometers, maybe we should do something about that), then its entirely possible that someone "missed" the time warp factor. Perhaps gravity waves can bend one without the other. This I dont know. This also has never been asked, or answered, at least publically, by anyone working on this project.

But that just goes to show, its always the little things that ruin projects. That one little factor that was overlooked costs the two agencies millions, perhaps billions.

If time is indeed warping at the same rate as space, then that would be the simplest explaination as to why it failed

Picture this.......two straight line lasers shooting off at right angles to one another, hitting mirrors equal distances apart and relfecting back to the starting point. We measure the distances and look for a difference in the time that it takes the light to relfect back. If one is different then the other, then we have a gravity wave..........because the wave warped space and changed the distance between the two mirrors.

But if time warps at the same rate as space, then the light could be accelerated/decellerated in direct proportion to the warpage of space. Causing it to arrive at the reflector at the same time as if space wasnt warped to begin with. In other words, one detector warped, one is not, yet both giving the same exact data because the warped one is warped in time as well as in space.

If I asked you brooother, you cant have one without the ...other

 

[darkmatter4brains]

Yeah, my problem with that is this........

A number of years ago, the ESA and NASA got together and made a space probe and shot it to Mars..........

And missed the entire planet

Why?

Because the ESA used metric measurements and NASA used standard......

If they missed that, the most obvious of things that would pop right out at you

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As an engineer myself, I can tell you that it is NOT the most obvious of things. Keeping track of units and sign conventions is one of the hardest things about the job. It's especially difficult with multiple groups involved, all who use different conventions. On the project I'm on right now, we just went through a whole battery of tests designed solely to check sign conventions before a launch.

Understanding the science (like how gravity waves distorts space/time) can be easy in comparison.

 

[darkmatter4brains]

But if time warps at the same rate as space, then the light could be accelerated/decellerated in direct proportion to the warpage of space.

I'm wondering if this is part of the problem. Light always travels at c, no matter what frame of reference you view it from. It cannot be deaccelerated/accelerated. It can be redshifted and lose energy like when it tries to escape a black hole, but it will still travel at c. Therefore, maybe the laser is only "sensitive" to the change in distance.

I'm intrigued by this post, because I remember asking this same question a WAYS back about the time I was taking General Relativity. I asked my teacher at the time and there IS a real good explanation. I wish I could remember it! Hopefully, somebody else on here knows.

 

[CommonMan]

So which is it? Do we live in a hologram? I don't think so. So did the gravity wave detector work or not? If it didn't, are they still trying to figure it out? Just what are the scienctist really saying about the experiment?

 

[darkmatter4brains]

So which is it? Do we live in a hologram? I don't think so. So did the gravity wave detector work or not? If it didn't, are they still trying to figure it out? Just what are the scienctist really saying about the experiment?

Did you see my other reply:

Also, this was LIGO's first phase only. And, you're correct - they detected nothing, which many expected at this level of sensitivity. But, in the next phase, they will increase the sensitivity and really should find something. If they don't this time, it will probably mean trouble!

So, it worked as many expected. But, why wait 5 years to move into this other phase of higher sensitivity. Dunno myself.

 

[ArcCentral]

Something tells me they will find nothing, because space does not warp. My hunch? I think gravity waves aren't much different than light waves, they are red shifted in the ultra extreme sense. Anyone know what the limits of redshifting are? Whats the most redshifted light wave ever recorded?