1 00:00:04,960 --> 00:00:09,760 Speaker 1: Okay, Daniel, is it possible for Einstein the famous scientists 2 00:00:09,920 --> 00:00:12,760 Speaker 1: to be wrong. Well, I got a lot of crackpots 3 00:00:12,840 --> 00:00:15,600 Speaker 1: in my inbox every week claiming have proven Einstein wrong, 4 00:00:15,640 --> 00:00:19,400 Speaker 1: because it's every physicists number one fantasy to prove that 5 00:00:19,440 --> 00:00:21,600 Speaker 1: the most famous scientists of all time could have made 6 00:00:21,600 --> 00:00:23,480 Speaker 1: a mistake. Well, I have to prove here for you. 7 00:00:24,040 --> 00:00:26,000 Speaker 1: I heard that Einstein, he was right about a lot 8 00:00:26,000 --> 00:00:27,880 Speaker 1: of things. But I heard that he predicted that we 9 00:00:27,920 --> 00:00:32,240 Speaker 1: would never see gravitational waves. That's right, and then scientists 10 00:00:32,360 --> 00:00:36,240 Speaker 1: actually found these crazy little features of the universe. So 11 00:00:36,240 --> 00:00:39,800 Speaker 1: so he was wrong, right, I mean, technically he uh 12 00:00:40,159 --> 00:00:42,959 Speaker 1: was wrong in that he predicted that physicists couldn't prove 13 00:00:43,040 --> 00:00:46,240 Speaker 1: him right. Yeah, it's a small victory, but technically we've 14 00:00:46,280 --> 00:01:00,880 Speaker 1: proven Einstein wrong. We'll take it. We'll take it. Hi 15 00:01:00,960 --> 00:01:04,120 Speaker 1: am Jorhe and I'm Daniel. Welcome to our podcast. Daniel 16 00:01:04,120 --> 00:01:07,480 Speaker 1: and Jorge explained the Universe. Now. I am a cartoonist 17 00:01:07,800 --> 00:01:11,360 Speaker 1: and I'm a particle physicist. I draw comics called PhD 18 00:01:11,400 --> 00:01:14,959 Speaker 1: comics online, and I do research at a large hadron collider, 19 00:01:15,000 --> 00:01:17,480 Speaker 1: smashing protons together to try to figure out what the 20 00:01:17,560 --> 00:01:20,520 Speaker 1: universe is. Made out of ent explain it to you. Yeah, 21 00:01:20,600 --> 00:01:23,160 Speaker 1: we just like talking about this crazy stuff that our 22 00:01:23,280 --> 00:01:25,759 Speaker 1: universe is made of and how it works. We basically 23 00:01:25,800 --> 00:01:28,600 Speaker 1: think of what could people out there be be interested in? 24 00:01:28,680 --> 00:01:31,560 Speaker 1: What kind of questions does that everyday person have about 25 00:01:31,600 --> 00:01:33,680 Speaker 1: the universe, And we thought, let's dig into that and 26 00:01:33,720 --> 00:01:36,640 Speaker 1: explain it to be On the program, We're going to 27 00:01:36,720 --> 00:01:43,160 Speaker 1: talk about gravitational waves. What is a gravitational wave? That's 28 00:01:43,200 --> 00:01:46,280 Speaker 1: today's topic. What are they? How wavy are they? And 29 00:01:46,319 --> 00:01:50,639 Speaker 1: will they make you gravitationally seasick? It's a grave topic. 30 00:01:51,120 --> 00:01:54,600 Speaker 1: It's a grave to this topic we hope will put 31 00:01:54,600 --> 00:01:57,280 Speaker 1: you in your grave. That's right, It will make you 32 00:01:57,360 --> 00:02:01,400 Speaker 1: feel lighter. Actually, even though it's a pretty heavy topic. 33 00:02:02,880 --> 00:02:09,240 Speaker 1: Don't don't you probably know what gravity is. You probably 34 00:02:09,240 --> 00:02:11,160 Speaker 1: know the wave is. But we went out in the 35 00:02:11,160 --> 00:02:13,200 Speaker 1: street and we asked people do they know what a 36 00:02:13,240 --> 00:02:17,280 Speaker 1: gravitational wave is. Here's what they had to say, A 37 00:02:17,360 --> 00:02:19,560 Speaker 1: wave of gravity kind of like how it acts on people. 38 00:02:20,760 --> 00:02:23,519 Speaker 1: The only thing that I might take a guess is 39 00:02:23,560 --> 00:02:26,120 Speaker 1: gravitational ways is because something that's reflected from the sun. 40 00:02:27,080 --> 00:02:31,880 Speaker 1: Uh No, I've heard of gravity, not gravitational waves. I'm 41 00:02:31,880 --> 00:02:34,480 Speaker 1: not sure. Yeah, okay, so most people have heard of 42 00:02:34,520 --> 00:02:39,240 Speaker 1: the word gravity. That was encouraging. That's good. That's encouraging 43 00:02:39,280 --> 00:02:40,880 Speaker 1: from your just like a general sense of what do 44 00:02:40,960 --> 00:02:44,440 Speaker 1: people out there know? Yeah? Yeah, you know, like like 45 00:02:44,520 --> 00:02:47,639 Speaker 1: it's not what It's kind of an interesting concept because 46 00:02:47,639 --> 00:02:50,919 Speaker 1: it's gravitational ways. It's like two things everybody knows about 47 00:02:50,919 --> 00:02:54,280 Speaker 1: gravity and waves, and it's like you put them together, 48 00:02:54,320 --> 00:02:57,639 Speaker 1: suddenly it's this whole new thing nobody knows about. That's right. 49 00:02:57,680 --> 00:03:00,560 Speaker 1: And frankly, it surprised me how a little people knew 50 00:03:00,560 --> 00:03:02,840 Speaker 1: about it, because some people had heard of the topic 51 00:03:02,880 --> 00:03:05,440 Speaker 1: but knew almost nothing. Some people really had no idea 52 00:03:05,480 --> 00:03:07,800 Speaker 1: what it was. But for me as a physicist, this 53 00:03:07,880 --> 00:03:10,440 Speaker 1: is something that made a huge splash in the in 54 00:03:10,480 --> 00:03:14,440 Speaker 1: the physics community. It made enormous waves jokes aside, when 55 00:03:14,480 --> 00:03:16,320 Speaker 1: it was discovered a few years ago. I mean, it's 56 00:03:16,320 --> 00:03:18,600 Speaker 1: the kind of thing where they discovered it and almost 57 00:03:18,639 --> 00:03:22,600 Speaker 1: immediately won the Nobel Prize for it. That's a big deal. Yeah, 58 00:03:22,840 --> 00:03:24,960 Speaker 1: But I guess that the truth is that I had 59 00:03:25,000 --> 00:03:27,880 Speaker 1: never heard about it until the big discovery was announced, 60 00:03:27,960 --> 00:03:30,640 Speaker 1: you know, and I'm pretty sort of plugged into research 61 00:03:30,680 --> 00:03:33,200 Speaker 1: and physicists, Um, but no, I hadn't. I had no 62 00:03:33,280 --> 00:03:36,680 Speaker 1: idea what these things were until I started hearing from 63 00:03:36,680 --> 00:03:40,120 Speaker 1: physicists like, hey, we think there's a big discovery about 64 00:03:40,160 --> 00:03:42,880 Speaker 1: to be announced. That's right. There were rumors bubbling around 65 00:03:42,920 --> 00:03:44,880 Speaker 1: for a while. But I don't think you're unusual. I 66 00:03:44,880 --> 00:03:48,800 Speaker 1: think before the discovery, nobody outside of physics had really 67 00:03:48,840 --> 00:03:51,120 Speaker 1: heard of gravitation of waves, and even most people inside 68 00:03:51,120 --> 00:03:53,839 Speaker 1: physics thought it was kind of a crazy backwater sub 69 00:03:53,880 --> 00:03:57,240 Speaker 1: field that might not ever amount to anything. But once 70 00:03:57,280 --> 00:04:00,200 Speaker 1: it happened, it was this huge splash and publicity and everything. 71 00:04:00,320 --> 00:04:02,680 Speaker 1: You think it's spread around the world and everybody would remember, 72 00:04:02,720 --> 00:04:04,720 Speaker 1: But I guess it's faded. Maybe if we've done this 73 00:04:04,760 --> 00:04:07,280 Speaker 1: a couple of years ago, just after the announcement, people 74 00:04:07,320 --> 00:04:10,040 Speaker 1: might know more or remember more, or at least be 75 00:04:10,040 --> 00:04:12,640 Speaker 1: better at pretending they knew something about it, right right. 76 00:04:12,760 --> 00:04:14,600 Speaker 1: Or maybe it's just kind of a reflection of how 77 00:04:14,680 --> 00:04:17,720 Speaker 1: we're all trapped in our little bubbles these days, you know, Like, 78 00:04:17,760 --> 00:04:20,279 Speaker 1: what feels like a huge deal that it's all over 79 00:04:20,279 --> 00:04:23,320 Speaker 1: the media to us, maybe somebody who lives in another 80 00:04:23,440 --> 00:04:28,000 Speaker 1: media bubble has it doesn't make it to them, you know, yeah, yeah, maybe, 81 00:04:28,160 --> 00:04:30,200 Speaker 1: Well One of the fun things about these interviews is 82 00:04:30,200 --> 00:04:32,719 Speaker 1: hearing people trying to figure it out as they're talking 83 00:04:32,760 --> 00:04:35,680 Speaker 1: to me, you know, like maybe it's has something to 84 00:04:35,720 --> 00:04:38,240 Speaker 1: do with the sun, or like it has waves on 85 00:04:38,360 --> 00:04:41,440 Speaker 1: people or something. I think that's a pretty insightful for 86 00:04:41,560 --> 00:04:44,080 Speaker 1: some psychologists to dig into, right, And it's been a 87 00:04:44,080 --> 00:04:46,600 Speaker 1: big deal in the fixed community for a while. I mean, 88 00:04:46,680 --> 00:04:49,520 Speaker 1: this the project that discovered these gravitational ways a few 89 00:04:49,600 --> 00:04:52,240 Speaker 1: years ago, Lego, that's been going on for years and years. 90 00:04:52,279 --> 00:04:55,760 Speaker 1: It's what's like one of the most expensive physics experiments ever, Right, 91 00:04:56,320 --> 00:04:58,680 Speaker 1: it's been going on for a long time. It's not 92 00:04:58,800 --> 00:05:02,520 Speaker 1: one of the most expensive. It's only six hundred something 93 00:05:02,600 --> 00:05:05,600 Speaker 1: million dollars. Oh my god, I can't even say that 94 00:05:05,640 --> 00:05:09,560 Speaker 1: for a I mean from the point of view like 95 00:05:09,600 --> 00:05:12,599 Speaker 1: the LHC, which is ten billion. Yeah, this is a 96 00:05:12,600 --> 00:05:15,000 Speaker 1: pretty cheap experiment. But the amazing thing is that it's 97 00:05:15,000 --> 00:05:17,599 Speaker 1: been going on for decades before it got results. I mean, 98 00:05:17,640 --> 00:05:20,160 Speaker 1: they've been working on this since the seventies and eighties 99 00:05:20,480 --> 00:05:24,000 Speaker 1: and they've been getting funding with no discovery for decades. 100 00:05:24,080 --> 00:05:27,200 Speaker 1: That's the kind of crazy blue sky research that I 101 00:05:27,279 --> 00:05:29,440 Speaker 1: think is wonderful. But it is happening less and less 102 00:05:29,480 --> 00:05:34,040 Speaker 1: these days. Well, let's break it down. What is a 103 00:05:34,080 --> 00:05:37,840 Speaker 1: gravitational wave? Right, So a gravitational wave, simply put, a 104 00:05:37,839 --> 00:05:42,240 Speaker 1: gravitational wave is a ripple in space. Right. Space itself 105 00:05:42,560 --> 00:05:45,080 Speaker 1: is not emptiness, it's not the backdrop of the Universe's 106 00:05:45,120 --> 00:05:48,479 Speaker 1: not nothing. It's a physical dynamical thing. It's like we're 107 00:05:48,520 --> 00:05:51,640 Speaker 1: fish swimming through water, right, and space is our is 108 00:05:51,680 --> 00:05:54,960 Speaker 1: our water. And so it turns out because space can 109 00:05:55,000 --> 00:05:58,120 Speaker 1: do things like bend and expand, it can also ripple, 110 00:05:58,520 --> 00:06:02,120 Speaker 1: and so gravitational wave is a ripple in space itself. 111 00:06:02,680 --> 00:06:04,359 Speaker 1: So like if you were a fish your whole life 112 00:06:04,400 --> 00:06:06,280 Speaker 1: and you were just moving through water, you wouldn't think 113 00:06:06,279 --> 00:06:08,480 Speaker 1: of the water as a thing. It would just be 114 00:06:08,520 --> 00:06:10,839 Speaker 1: the thing you're moving around and right, that's right. You 115 00:06:10,880 --> 00:06:13,200 Speaker 1: might not even notice that it's there unless it did 116 00:06:13,279 --> 00:06:15,760 Speaker 1: something or had some effect on you. Right. And so 117 00:06:15,800 --> 00:06:17,960 Speaker 1: if you're a fish, you notice, oh, look there are currents, 118 00:06:18,040 --> 00:06:20,800 Speaker 1: I can serve those or whatever. And so we're starting 119 00:06:20,800 --> 00:06:23,120 Speaker 1: to notice the space is doing some stuff and that's 120 00:06:23,120 --> 00:06:25,600 Speaker 1: what makes us pay attention to it. Okay, So gravitational 121 00:06:25,600 --> 00:06:28,479 Speaker 1: wave is a ripple of the space itself, like the 122 00:06:28,520 --> 00:06:32,200 Speaker 1: space itself. We're in actually kind of ripples. Yeah, And 123 00:06:32,240 --> 00:06:34,840 Speaker 1: I think people might have an easier time understanding ripples 124 00:06:34,839 --> 00:06:36,800 Speaker 1: if they start first by thinking about other things that 125 00:06:36,880 --> 00:06:40,799 Speaker 1: basically do which are similar, like space bending. So space 126 00:06:40,880 --> 00:06:43,039 Speaker 1: is three dimensions, yeah, that we know of, right, that 127 00:06:43,160 --> 00:06:46,159 Speaker 1: we know of, yeah, down, forward, backward, left, right, But 128 00:06:46,200 --> 00:06:48,320 Speaker 1: it's hard to imagine space bending in three D, so 129 00:06:48,320 --> 00:06:50,599 Speaker 1: it's easier to think of it in two dimensions. So 130 00:06:50,760 --> 00:06:54,720 Speaker 1: typical examples think of like a big rubber sheet, that's space. Well, 131 00:06:54,760 --> 00:06:57,360 Speaker 1: space can be bent when you have big heavy objects 132 00:06:57,360 --> 00:06:59,320 Speaker 1: sitting on it, like a like if you put a 133 00:06:59,480 --> 00:07:02,080 Speaker 1: big bowl ball onto a rubber sheet, it's going to 134 00:07:02,200 --> 00:07:04,280 Speaker 1: distort it. And then if you, for example, if you 135 00:07:04,400 --> 00:07:07,239 Speaker 1: roll a marble across that sheet, it's not gonna anymore 136 00:07:07,320 --> 00:07:09,000 Speaker 1: move in a straight line. It's going to move like 137 00:07:09,160 --> 00:07:11,720 Speaker 1: in an orbit. Or if you've ever you know, spun 138 00:07:11,760 --> 00:07:15,120 Speaker 1: a coin down one of those crazy parabolic things in 139 00:07:15,160 --> 00:07:18,200 Speaker 1: a museum and send it seeing it to do crazy orbits. 140 00:07:18,720 --> 00:07:21,960 Speaker 1: Space gets bent by mass, and that's what makes things 141 00:07:22,000 --> 00:07:24,400 Speaker 1: go around the Sun, for example. So space is not 142 00:07:24,560 --> 00:07:27,240 Speaker 1: like a flat, stiff sheet. It's like this kind of 143 00:07:27,320 --> 00:07:30,520 Speaker 1: wobbly kind of thing. That we're rolling along in. That's right, 144 00:07:30,800 --> 00:07:32,960 Speaker 1: we're rolling along it. We're moving in what seems like 145 00:07:33,000 --> 00:07:35,600 Speaker 1: the most natural path, the straightest line for us, unless 146 00:07:35,600 --> 00:07:38,040 Speaker 1: you get pushed in some direction. But if there's a 147 00:07:38,040 --> 00:07:41,040 Speaker 1: big heavy thing near us, like the Earth or the Sun, 148 00:07:41,360 --> 00:07:44,400 Speaker 1: pretty big massive stuff in the universe, then it bends 149 00:07:44,440 --> 00:07:47,520 Speaker 1: that space and affects sort of the natural straight line 150 00:07:47,560 --> 00:07:50,720 Speaker 1: we would travel in. And so people can practice thinking 151 00:07:50,760 --> 00:07:54,760 Speaker 1: about space bending by understanding how big heavy masses can 152 00:07:54,840 --> 00:07:57,720 Speaker 1: distort space, affecting the way that we move through it. 153 00:07:58,040 --> 00:08:01,360 Speaker 1: And the subtle bit there is in the rubber sheet analogy, 154 00:08:01,600 --> 00:08:05,160 Speaker 1: the two dimensional rubber sheet is bending into the third dimension, right, 155 00:08:05,160 --> 00:08:08,360 Speaker 1: which doesn't exist in the two D rubber sheet universe, um, 156 00:08:08,560 --> 00:08:11,480 Speaker 1: But in the full three D example in the real 157 00:08:11,600 --> 00:08:14,440 Speaker 1: universe that we're in, our space is not bending in 158 00:08:14,600 --> 00:08:18,960 Speaker 1: some hidden, higher fourth dimensional universe. The bending is intrinsic. 159 00:08:19,280 --> 00:08:21,960 Speaker 1: It's the relationship of objects in that space. So if 160 00:08:22,000 --> 00:08:24,920 Speaker 1: you want to ask, like, what's the shortest distance through 161 00:08:25,040 --> 00:08:28,240 Speaker 1: space for these two points that's affected by this bending 162 00:08:28,320 --> 00:08:31,240 Speaker 1: of the space between them. Oh, so it's kind of 163 00:08:31,280 --> 00:08:34,960 Speaker 1: like the like, the relationship between things in space is 164 00:08:35,000 --> 00:08:39,040 Speaker 1: what's changing, what's getting distorted exactly the relationship between things 165 00:08:39,040 --> 00:08:41,440 Speaker 1: in space. And when I first started thinking about this, 166 00:08:41,559 --> 00:08:44,040 Speaker 1: like space as a thing, even as a physicist, it's 167 00:08:44,080 --> 00:08:47,160 Speaker 1: pretty hard to think about because you imagine space as 168 00:08:47,200 --> 00:08:49,480 Speaker 1: being defined by distances or as you say, like the 169 00:08:49,960 --> 00:08:53,400 Speaker 1: relationship between things. And so I always wondered, like, how 170 00:08:53,400 --> 00:08:56,120 Speaker 1: could you even tell if space is bending? Because wouldn't 171 00:08:56,120 --> 00:08:58,720 Speaker 1: your rulers bend? Also, like don't you need some like 172 00:08:58,880 --> 00:09:02,120 Speaker 1: absolute external yard stick to notice if space is bending? 173 00:09:02,920 --> 00:09:05,000 Speaker 1: But you you would notice it, wouldn't you. Like if 174 00:09:05,040 --> 00:09:07,319 Speaker 1: I'm near a distorted space and I take my rule 175 00:09:07,679 --> 00:09:10,000 Speaker 1: ruler and I pointed one way, I would measure something 176 00:09:10,040 --> 00:09:13,280 Speaker 1: differently than if I pointed in another way. Yeah, exactly right. 177 00:09:13,320 --> 00:09:15,400 Speaker 1: And that depends a little bit on how your ruler 178 00:09:15,480 --> 00:09:18,400 Speaker 1: is built, Right, If your ruler is built out of 179 00:09:18,440 --> 00:09:21,880 Speaker 1: molecules like most rulers, and those molecules have a distance 180 00:09:21,960 --> 00:09:25,040 Speaker 1: between them that's fixed by like they're you know, the 181 00:09:25,120 --> 00:09:27,760 Speaker 1: forces between them, like you know, a standard wooden rulers 182 00:09:27,800 --> 00:09:30,840 Speaker 1: held together by chemical bonds. Then those bonds are gonna 183 00:09:30,840 --> 00:09:34,200 Speaker 1: be stronger than like any space stretching, And so a 184 00:09:34,280 --> 00:09:36,240 Speaker 1: ruler like that is not going to be affected by 185 00:09:36,240 --> 00:09:39,520 Speaker 1: space getting stretched, and so it would certainly notice. But say, 186 00:09:39,559 --> 00:09:42,760 Speaker 1: for example, your ruler was like a bunch of equidistant 187 00:09:43,320 --> 00:09:47,000 Speaker 1: pebbles floating in space, right, then if space stretched, you 188 00:09:47,000 --> 00:09:50,360 Speaker 1: wouldn't even notice because the distances between those the pebbles 189 00:09:50,360 --> 00:09:52,000 Speaker 1: would grow and shrink as well, and you would have 190 00:09:52,040 --> 00:09:54,160 Speaker 1: no comparison. So you mean, like if you if you 191 00:09:54,640 --> 00:09:56,839 Speaker 1: measure distances kind of like they do in my home 192 00:09:56,840 --> 00:09:59,320 Speaker 1: country of Panama, It's not like you look at up 193 00:09:59,320 --> 00:10:01,320 Speaker 1: in a GPS map. It's more like, Okay, you go 194 00:10:01,440 --> 00:10:02,960 Speaker 1: down this street and then you make a ride at 195 00:10:02,960 --> 00:10:05,400 Speaker 1: the McDonald's, and you make a left at the gas station, 196 00:10:05,800 --> 00:10:07,960 Speaker 1: and that's how you get to my house. Then if 197 00:10:08,120 --> 00:10:10,760 Speaker 1: if like the terrain change, I wouldn't notice the difference 198 00:10:10,840 --> 00:10:13,320 Speaker 1: because I would still use these landmarks, still get to 199 00:10:13,400 --> 00:10:17,040 Speaker 1: McDonald's exactly, You still take a ride. Yeah. Yeah, So 200 00:10:17,080 --> 00:10:19,719 Speaker 1: if it's like an earthquake and suddenly McDonald's much further way, 201 00:10:19,720 --> 00:10:23,480 Speaker 1: it's still like, you know, it's one McDonald's away, still right, Well, 202 00:10:23,600 --> 00:10:25,600 Speaker 1: this is a perfect spot to take a break. We'll 203 00:10:25,600 --> 00:10:40,520 Speaker 1: be right back. So space is the squishy thing that 204 00:10:40,600 --> 00:10:44,160 Speaker 1: we're living in. It's not like a big vacuum or 205 00:10:44,200 --> 00:10:46,760 Speaker 1: an empty warehouse. It's like this squishy thing and it's 206 00:10:46,800 --> 00:10:49,960 Speaker 1: gonna squished by things that are heavy, and that can 207 00:10:50,000 --> 00:10:53,040 Speaker 1: affect how far things are apart from each other. So, 208 00:10:53,080 --> 00:10:56,000 Speaker 1: now a ripple is like what is that? Then? Like 209 00:10:56,040 --> 00:10:57,959 Speaker 1: a ripple in water? Is it similar to like a 210 00:10:58,040 --> 00:11:01,280 Speaker 1: ripple like her fish? It's a a poole gravitation wave, 211 00:11:01,360 --> 00:11:03,400 Speaker 1: like a ripple in the water. You know, like there's 212 00:11:03,640 --> 00:11:06,480 Speaker 1: an explosion underwater, we would feel that sort of shock wave. 213 00:11:06,720 --> 00:11:08,840 Speaker 1: That's exactly what it is. Yeah, And so if you 214 00:11:08,880 --> 00:11:12,760 Speaker 1: have two really heavy objects, for example, spinning around each other, 215 00:11:13,160 --> 00:11:17,280 Speaker 1: or one really massive object that's accelerated, the gravitational field 216 00:11:17,280 --> 00:11:20,240 Speaker 1: from that object is going to change really quickly. Right, 217 00:11:20,280 --> 00:11:23,560 Speaker 1: So imagine a static object is a gravitational field around it. 218 00:11:23,800 --> 00:11:27,280 Speaker 1: If that object accelerates or moves really its velocity has 219 00:11:27,400 --> 00:11:30,760 Speaker 1: changed really quickly, then the gravitational field itself is going 220 00:11:30,800 --> 00:11:33,240 Speaker 1: to change. And the wiggle in the field caused by 221 00:11:33,280 --> 00:11:35,880 Speaker 1: the acceleration of that object is a ripple. Right, It's 222 00:11:35,880 --> 00:11:39,240 Speaker 1: going to travel through space outward from that object. So 223 00:11:39,280 --> 00:11:42,320 Speaker 1: imagine you take like a rock, it has a gravitational field. 224 00:11:42,360 --> 00:11:44,200 Speaker 1: A rock is going to be bending space around it. 225 00:11:44,559 --> 00:11:47,120 Speaker 1: And then if you move that rock, something far away 226 00:11:47,200 --> 00:11:49,800 Speaker 1: is not going to notice instantaneously that you move the rock. 227 00:11:49,960 --> 00:11:52,800 Speaker 1: It can't tell that the gravity has changed yet because 228 00:11:52,800 --> 00:11:56,040 Speaker 1: the information about the rock moving travels at the speed 229 00:11:56,080 --> 00:11:59,040 Speaker 1: of light. How so, even gravity can only move at 230 00:11:59,040 --> 00:12:01,600 Speaker 1: the speed of light. That's right. Everything in the universe 231 00:12:01,880 --> 00:12:04,760 Speaker 1: that carries information can only move at the speed of 232 00:12:04,840 --> 00:12:08,080 Speaker 1: light or slower. And so, for example, say the Sun 233 00:12:08,200 --> 00:12:12,760 Speaker 1: disappeared magically, the Earth wouldn't notice for eight minutes. What 234 00:12:13,080 --> 00:12:15,080 Speaker 1: because that's how long it takes for light from the 235 00:12:15,120 --> 00:12:17,640 Speaker 1: Sun and for the gravity from the Sun to reach us. 236 00:12:18,200 --> 00:12:20,080 Speaker 1: So the path of the Earth wouldn't be affected for 237 00:12:20,120 --> 00:12:22,320 Speaker 1: eight minutes. So there'll be eight minutes where there was 238 00:12:22,320 --> 00:12:24,920 Speaker 1: no Sun, but the Earth would just keep going like hey, 239 00:12:25,120 --> 00:12:27,760 Speaker 1: we wouldn't see it gone either, right, because the light 240 00:12:27,800 --> 00:12:29,959 Speaker 1: would also take eight minutes to get here. That's right. 241 00:12:30,000 --> 00:12:32,680 Speaker 1: The Sun could have disappeared five minutes ago and we 242 00:12:32,679 --> 00:12:35,360 Speaker 1: would have no idea. Don't rush outside and look at 243 00:12:35,360 --> 00:12:39,000 Speaker 1: the sun. Everybody, Please don't know. I'm scared, Daniel. Anyway, 244 00:12:39,080 --> 00:12:41,160 Speaker 1: that scenario, there's nothing you can do in that scenario, 245 00:12:41,280 --> 00:12:43,560 Speaker 1: So there's no point in preparing for it. But the 246 00:12:43,600 --> 00:12:47,080 Speaker 1: point is that the gravitational information moves through space the 247 00:12:47,080 --> 00:12:49,520 Speaker 1: same speed everything else does, and so if something is 248 00:12:49,679 --> 00:12:54,240 Speaker 1: changing really quickly, then that like increasing gravity decreasing gravity, 249 00:12:54,280 --> 00:12:56,520 Speaker 1: would sort of travel would take a while to get 250 00:12:56,559 --> 00:12:58,319 Speaker 1: to me, and I would see that as kind of 251 00:12:58,320 --> 00:13:02,800 Speaker 1: a wave, like a ripple. Yeah, exactly. Imagine somebody's turning 252 00:13:02,800 --> 00:13:05,320 Speaker 1: the Sun on and off. It exists, it disappears, it exists, 253 00:13:05,320 --> 00:13:08,240 Speaker 1: it disappears. Then the gravitational field of the sun, this 254 00:13:08,440 --> 00:13:11,280 Speaker 1: bending of space is going to disappear and then snap 255 00:13:11,280 --> 00:13:13,640 Speaker 1: back and disappear and snap back. And what we would 256 00:13:13,640 --> 00:13:16,520 Speaker 1: see it on Earth is gravity turning on and off 257 00:13:16,559 --> 00:13:19,120 Speaker 1: and on and off, and those would be enormous ripples 258 00:13:19,280 --> 00:13:22,160 Speaker 1: in a gravitational field. Yeah. Wow, Well, I think what's 259 00:13:22,160 --> 00:13:24,320 Speaker 1: cool is that, you know, we won talks about it 260 00:13:24,360 --> 00:13:27,240 Speaker 1: like it's um it has to be like two black 261 00:13:27,280 --> 00:13:30,600 Speaker 1: holes or something huge and massive, But it's really like 262 00:13:30,720 --> 00:13:34,120 Speaker 1: everything generates gravitational waves, right like you and I. If 263 00:13:34,160 --> 00:13:37,400 Speaker 1: I move my arms back and forth, it's I'm generating 264 00:13:37,400 --> 00:13:40,160 Speaker 1: gravitational waves, that's right. And you happen to be a 265 00:13:40,240 --> 00:13:43,640 Speaker 1: very magnetic person or gravitational person, so I sense those 266 00:13:43,679 --> 00:13:45,920 Speaker 1: waves from your head, and I'm glad you didn't say heavy, 267 00:13:46,000 --> 00:13:48,920 Speaker 1: thank you. I know I was about to say that. 268 00:13:49,000 --> 00:13:51,480 Speaker 1: I was trying to steal clear of it. Um. Yeah, 269 00:13:51,520 --> 00:13:54,800 Speaker 1: you're right. Everything that has mass bend space, and anything 270 00:13:54,840 --> 00:13:59,080 Speaker 1: that has mass and is accelerated will be generating gravitational waves. 271 00:13:59,120 --> 00:14:01,120 Speaker 1: But the thing for people to member is that gravity 272 00:14:01,200 --> 00:14:06,040 Speaker 1: is super duper crazy, ridiculously weak, which is why, for example, 273 00:14:06,400 --> 00:14:08,400 Speaker 1: if you're sitting next to somebody in a train, you 274 00:14:08,440 --> 00:14:11,560 Speaker 1: don't feel a literal gravitational force between you. There is 275 00:14:11,600 --> 00:14:13,960 Speaker 1: one there, but you can't even sense it because it's 276 00:14:14,000 --> 00:14:16,400 Speaker 1: so tiny compared to the gravitational force of you in 277 00:14:16,440 --> 00:14:19,320 Speaker 1: the Earth, no matter how attractive that person is. That's right, 278 00:14:19,320 --> 00:14:21,200 Speaker 1: you might be feeling other forces, and you know, feel 279 00:14:21,240 --> 00:14:23,560 Speaker 1: free to act on that or not not to you, 280 00:14:24,120 --> 00:14:26,600 Speaker 1: there's no physics advice about whether or not to approach 281 00:14:26,640 --> 00:14:29,240 Speaker 1: people on a train. But your point is correct. Everything 282 00:14:29,280 --> 00:14:32,720 Speaker 1: is generating gravitational waves that has mass and is accelerating, right, 283 00:14:32,760 --> 00:14:35,800 Speaker 1: But they're so weak. Yeah, you need something really really 284 00:14:35,880 --> 00:14:38,480 Speaker 1: huge in order to be able to detect them. Okay, well, 285 00:14:38,560 --> 00:14:41,960 Speaker 1: let's talk about how we even came up with this 286 00:14:42,000 --> 00:14:45,360 Speaker 1: idea of a gravitation wave. Right, who sits around thinking, hey, 287 00:14:45,400 --> 00:14:48,320 Speaker 1: I wonder if ripple, if gravity and spacetime itself can 288 00:14:48,400 --> 00:14:52,080 Speaker 1: generate waves, Well, your first guests would probably be right 289 00:14:52,080 --> 00:14:54,160 Speaker 1: in that case, because the first person to think about 290 00:14:54,200 --> 00:14:57,760 Speaker 1: that was Albert Einstein. Right, everybody's going to scientists in 291 00:14:57,760 --> 00:15:00,440 Speaker 1: this case. It is exactly right. He came up with 292 00:15:00,480 --> 00:15:04,240 Speaker 1: this theory of general relativity, and the core idea in 293 00:15:04,240 --> 00:15:06,720 Speaker 1: that theory is that gravity is not a force but 294 00:15:06,840 --> 00:15:10,360 Speaker 1: a bending of space. And so a very natural consequence 295 00:15:10,440 --> 00:15:13,400 Speaker 1: of his theory was that if things accelerate, then it 296 00:15:13,440 --> 00:15:16,320 Speaker 1: would make these ripples in the bending of space, and 297 00:15:16,400 --> 00:15:20,360 Speaker 1: those ripples he called gravitational waves. Oh, I see. It's like, 298 00:15:20,400 --> 00:15:22,240 Speaker 1: once you come up with the idea that space can 299 00:15:22,280 --> 00:15:26,600 Speaker 1: bend and that and that also this information about space 300 00:15:26,640 --> 00:15:29,720 Speaker 1: bending can't travel faster than light, than you're naturally or 301 00:15:29,800 --> 00:15:32,640 Speaker 1: left with the idea that, um, you can have these 302 00:15:32,640 --> 00:15:37,480 Speaker 1: waves traveling through space for gravity. Yeah, exactly. But a 303 00:15:37,480 --> 00:15:39,800 Speaker 1: funny wrinkle in the story, or ripple in the story, 304 00:15:39,840 --> 00:15:42,880 Speaker 1: if you like, is that Einstein he thought about these 305 00:15:42,880 --> 00:15:46,320 Speaker 1: things as sort of a theoretical possibility or an abstract idea. 306 00:15:46,600 --> 00:15:48,640 Speaker 1: But he I think he wrote in his paper. He's like, 307 00:15:48,920 --> 00:15:51,600 Speaker 1: he said, but we could never discover these because they're 308 00:15:51,600 --> 00:15:55,040 Speaker 1: too small. Even Einstein, who predicted these things, thought it 309 00:15:55,040 --> 00:15:58,000 Speaker 1: would be impossible for us to ever detect them, which 310 00:15:58,040 --> 00:16:00,880 Speaker 1: is like even more kudo to the experiment mentalists for 311 00:16:01,120 --> 00:16:04,960 Speaker 1: proving Einstein wrong by proving him right. Wow. So even 312 00:16:05,000 --> 00:16:07,360 Speaker 1: Einstein didn't think that it would be possible to measure 313 00:16:07,400 --> 00:16:09,400 Speaker 1: these But they've done it. They did it a couple 314 00:16:09,440 --> 00:16:11,280 Speaker 1: of years ago. Yeah. And you know, there's one way 315 00:16:11,280 --> 00:16:14,440 Speaker 1: in which I personally agreed with Einstein, because I remember 316 00:16:14,440 --> 00:16:17,160 Speaker 1: when I was choosing where to go for graduate school, 317 00:16:17,560 --> 00:16:20,120 Speaker 1: I was visiting various institutions and thinking about what physics 318 00:16:20,160 --> 00:16:22,400 Speaker 1: they were doing, and I went to cal Tech and 319 00:16:22,400 --> 00:16:25,080 Speaker 1: cal Tech is one of the leading institutions on LAGO, 320 00:16:25,200 --> 00:16:26,880 Speaker 1: and I was actually got to talk to one of 321 00:16:26,880 --> 00:16:28,640 Speaker 1: the leading scientists on it at the time. He was 322 00:16:28,680 --> 00:16:31,480 Speaker 1: telling me about about this project, and I thought, Wow, 323 00:16:31,520 --> 00:16:34,880 Speaker 1: this sounds cool but really hard and basically impossible, and 324 00:16:34,920 --> 00:16:37,280 Speaker 1: I would be crazy to sign up to do a 325 00:16:37,400 --> 00:16:39,760 Speaker 1: pH d in this. I thought, they're never going to 326 00:16:39,800 --> 00:16:43,080 Speaker 1: see these things. It's impossible and ridiculous. More power to you, 327 00:16:43,240 --> 00:16:46,240 Speaker 1: but I'm going to go do particle physics. On that note, 328 00:16:46,440 --> 00:17:01,080 Speaker 1: let's take a quick break. The skills are problem is insane, right, Like, 329 00:17:01,160 --> 00:17:05,320 Speaker 1: it's first of all, you need uh, something momentous happening, 330 00:17:05,440 --> 00:17:10,080 Speaker 1: like two black holes spinning around each other so fast 331 00:17:10,119 --> 00:17:13,520 Speaker 1: and I'm just about to like crash together, right yeah, 332 00:17:13,760 --> 00:17:17,359 Speaker 1: really really massive objects, and you need a lot of acceleration. Also, 333 00:17:17,720 --> 00:17:20,320 Speaker 1: as you say, for example, black holes smashing into each 334 00:17:20,359 --> 00:17:22,520 Speaker 1: other does that. And the reason is that the very 335 00:17:22,600 --> 00:17:25,160 Speaker 1: last moment before the black holes collide into each other, 336 00:17:25,320 --> 00:17:29,439 Speaker 1: they're moving super fast. It's a huge acceleration there, because 337 00:17:29,480 --> 00:17:32,040 Speaker 1: you know, we think of black holes crashing like they 338 00:17:32,119 --> 00:17:34,240 Speaker 1: travel the straight line and they crash into each other, 339 00:17:34,280 --> 00:17:36,880 Speaker 1: but they don't write They actually kind of get close 340 00:17:36,920 --> 00:17:38,840 Speaker 1: to each other, and then they start circling each other, 341 00:17:39,040 --> 00:17:41,399 Speaker 1: and then that circling gets smaller and smaller and smaller 342 00:17:41,400 --> 00:17:43,840 Speaker 1: and smaller. Yeah, exactly, they spin around each other a 343 00:17:43,880 --> 00:17:46,440 Speaker 1: little bit um unless you build like a black hole 344 00:17:46,440 --> 00:17:49,119 Speaker 1: collider to shoot them exactly at each other. And you know, 345 00:17:49,200 --> 00:17:51,040 Speaker 1: anybody out there who knows how to do that, give 346 00:17:51,080 --> 00:17:53,960 Speaker 1: me a call. But if two natural black holes that 347 00:17:54,000 --> 00:17:56,800 Speaker 1: approach each other are going to already have some relative 348 00:17:56,840 --> 00:17:59,440 Speaker 1: angler momentum. So they're going to keep that relative spin 349 00:17:59,520 --> 00:18:01,000 Speaker 1: from each other there, So they're going to keep that 350 00:18:01,200 --> 00:18:02,760 Speaker 1: and then they're just going to spin around each other. 351 00:18:02,880 --> 00:18:05,040 Speaker 1: As you get closer and closer to have the same 352 00:18:05,119 --> 00:18:07,320 Speaker 1: anglar momentum, they're gonna have to go faster and faster. 353 00:18:07,480 --> 00:18:09,199 Speaker 1: Kind of like when you flush the toilet. You know, 354 00:18:09,280 --> 00:18:11,679 Speaker 1: two things floating there, spinning around each other, and then 355 00:18:11,680 --> 00:18:13,880 Speaker 1: as they get closer and closer, they starts being really 356 00:18:13,880 --> 00:18:17,520 Speaker 1: really fast. Yes, exactly, the dark matter in your toilet, 357 00:18:17,560 --> 00:18:22,080 Speaker 1: the other from the black hole. Yeah, exactly, it spins 358 00:18:22,080 --> 00:18:23,359 Speaker 1: around each other. I was going to say, more like 359 00:18:23,440 --> 00:18:26,679 Speaker 1: an ice skater spins around faster and faster as she 360 00:18:26,720 --> 00:18:29,560 Speaker 1: pulls her arms in. But yes, also dark matter on 361 00:18:29,600 --> 00:18:32,200 Speaker 1: your toilet does the same. Yeah. And then right right 362 00:18:32,240 --> 00:18:35,160 Speaker 1: before it flushes down, it's been so fast, that's when 363 00:18:35,200 --> 00:18:39,159 Speaker 1: these generates massive gravitational waves. Right, that's the idea, that's right. 364 00:18:39,200 --> 00:18:41,840 Speaker 1: So Jorges take away from this topic is every time 365 00:18:41,880 --> 00:18:45,040 Speaker 1: you flush the toilet, you're generating gravitational which is true, 366 00:18:45,320 --> 00:18:49,720 Speaker 1: which is taking which is technically accurately true. Yes, yes, yes, 367 00:18:49,760 --> 00:18:52,760 Speaker 1: And you have a physicist now on record saying that, um. 368 00:18:52,800 --> 00:18:54,760 Speaker 1: But in the case of the cosmic toilet, you know, 369 00:18:55,080 --> 00:18:59,240 Speaker 1: black holes actually swish around each other and flush themselves away. Um, 370 00:18:59,280 --> 00:19:01,760 Speaker 1: what happens is get these ripples, and when the ripple 371 00:19:01,800 --> 00:19:05,720 Speaker 1: passes through Earth, it squeezes the space in one direction 372 00:19:05,800 --> 00:19:08,200 Speaker 1: and stretches it in the other. That's the effect of 373 00:19:08,240 --> 00:19:10,520 Speaker 1: the ripple on Earth. So if we want to see it, 374 00:19:10,800 --> 00:19:13,560 Speaker 1: we have to have a very accurate ruler pointing in 375 00:19:13,680 --> 00:19:16,639 Speaker 1: two directions, one ninety degrees from the other, so we 376 00:19:16,680 --> 00:19:19,080 Speaker 1: can see a squeeze in one way and a stretch 377 00:19:19,160 --> 00:19:21,479 Speaker 1: in the other direction at the same time. So the 378 00:19:21,480 --> 00:19:24,760 Speaker 1: direction of the wave um tells you where it was 379 00:19:24,800 --> 00:19:27,760 Speaker 1: coming from. Also, and you want to calibrate yourself by 380 00:19:27,800 --> 00:19:31,359 Speaker 1: having measurements in the direction of the wave and ninety degrees. Also, 381 00:19:31,680 --> 00:19:34,119 Speaker 1: because you don't know which direction the wave is going 382 00:19:34,160 --> 00:19:35,760 Speaker 1: to come from, you want to make sure to be 383 00:19:35,800 --> 00:19:38,080 Speaker 1: sensitive to it no matter where it comes. So you 384 00:19:38,119 --> 00:19:41,800 Speaker 1: have to basically really careful rulers that are ninety degrees 385 00:19:42,000 --> 00:19:44,080 Speaker 1: or arrange from each other so you can be sensitive 386 00:19:44,119 --> 00:19:46,640 Speaker 1: to any direction. But it's crazy because even though these 387 00:19:46,680 --> 00:19:50,320 Speaker 1: are generated by two colliding black holes, by the time 388 00:19:50,320 --> 00:19:53,920 Speaker 1: they get to is these waves are like really faint, right, Yeah, 389 00:19:53,960 --> 00:19:56,240 Speaker 1: there really are, tim I mean Einstein had a good point. 390 00:19:56,400 --> 00:19:58,120 Speaker 1: In order to see these things, you have to see 391 00:19:58,160 --> 00:20:02,440 Speaker 1: space shrink by one fact to intend to the twenty right, 392 00:20:02,480 --> 00:20:05,880 Speaker 1: that's ten with twenty zeros after it. It's like if 393 00:20:05,920 --> 00:20:09,159 Speaker 1: you had a meter stick that was ten to the 394 00:20:09,240 --> 00:20:12,159 Speaker 1: twenty meters long, you would have to see it shrink 395 00:20:12,200 --> 00:20:15,840 Speaker 1: by one meter, yeah, exactly. Yeah, Or if you wanted 396 00:20:15,840 --> 00:20:18,399 Speaker 1: to see something shrink by like a millimeter, you'd have 397 00:20:18,440 --> 00:20:21,520 Speaker 1: to have a yard stick that's like, you know, ten 398 00:20:21,640 --> 00:20:25,640 Speaker 1: six tillion long or something crazy. It's really ridiculous. It's 399 00:20:25,680 --> 00:20:27,840 Speaker 1: like the size of our solar system, right, yeah, I 400 00:20:27,840 --> 00:20:30,919 Speaker 1: think so. And so you can imagine not only is 401 00:20:30,920 --> 00:20:33,199 Speaker 1: it really hard to see things that are small, but 402 00:20:33,359 --> 00:20:36,439 Speaker 1: other things are affecting you, right, not not that anything 403 00:20:36,440 --> 00:20:39,200 Speaker 1: else is shaping space that same way. But if you 404 00:20:39,280 --> 00:20:41,520 Speaker 1: have a ruler, how do you even know how long 405 00:20:41,560 --> 00:20:43,920 Speaker 1: it is to tend to the twenty right to one 406 00:20:43,920 --> 00:20:46,640 Speaker 1: part in tend of the twenty And you detect um 407 00:20:46,680 --> 00:20:49,240 Speaker 1: when it's wiggling, Like if you just heat up your ruler, 408 00:20:49,600 --> 00:20:51,440 Speaker 1: it's going to get a little longer. If you if 409 00:20:51,480 --> 00:20:53,359 Speaker 1: you cool down your ruler, it's going to get a 410 00:20:53,359 --> 00:20:57,320 Speaker 1: little shorter. So the experimental trouble of seeing something so 411 00:20:57,520 --> 00:21:00,800 Speaker 1: tiny is really really it's it's really difficult, and it's 412 00:21:00,840 --> 00:21:04,120 Speaker 1: really an amazing Coudi graw that they pulled it off. 413 00:21:04,160 --> 00:21:06,159 Speaker 1: So it's like if I was standing on one end 414 00:21:06,200 --> 00:21:08,440 Speaker 1: of the solar system and you were standing on the 415 00:21:08,480 --> 00:21:11,760 Speaker 1: other side of the solar system, it would be like asking, like, hey, Daniel, 416 00:21:11,800 --> 00:21:14,440 Speaker 1: did you feel the space between us shrink by one 417 00:21:14,480 --> 00:21:18,920 Speaker 1: millimeter exactly? That's that's crazy. It's pretty crazy, and so 418 00:21:19,000 --> 00:21:20,439 Speaker 1: in order to do it, they had to come up 419 00:21:20,480 --> 00:21:23,000 Speaker 1: with some pretty crazy technology. The way they do it 420 00:21:23,040 --> 00:21:26,560 Speaker 1: is really awesome and beautiful. I mean, there's fascinating theoretical stuff, 421 00:21:26,720 --> 00:21:28,960 Speaker 1: but the experimental side of it I love also because 422 00:21:28,960 --> 00:21:30,960 Speaker 1: they had to come up with new techniques that nobody 423 00:21:30,960 --> 00:21:36,560 Speaker 1: had ever used before. So this is the LIGO project, 424 00:21:36,640 --> 00:21:40,800 Speaker 1: right l I GEO, Yeah, that's right. LIGO stands for 425 00:21:41,160 --> 00:21:46,280 Speaker 1: laser interferometric I think gravitational observatory LIGO. Not to be 426 00:21:46,359 --> 00:21:50,399 Speaker 1: confused with LEGO. That's right. Legos almost as expensive as LEGO. 427 00:21:51,000 --> 00:21:53,440 Speaker 1: But the way they do it is they have these 428 00:21:53,800 --> 00:21:57,080 Speaker 1: two rulers that are you know, four kilometers long each 429 00:21:57,520 --> 00:22:00,240 Speaker 1: and they shoot a beam of laser light all the 430 00:22:00,240 --> 00:22:02,919 Speaker 1: way down this tunnel and then it bounces off a 431 00:22:02,960 --> 00:22:06,520 Speaker 1: mirror and comes back, and they do that simultaneously along 432 00:22:06,600 --> 00:22:09,959 Speaker 1: both legs. And then when the lasers come back, they 433 00:22:09,960 --> 00:22:14,000 Speaker 1: can tell how far the light went by comparing how 434 00:22:14,040 --> 00:22:17,080 Speaker 1: many wiggles it's made. So it's kind of like um, 435 00:22:17,359 --> 00:22:19,520 Speaker 1: like a really race, right, Like you send a laser 436 00:22:19,560 --> 00:22:21,560 Speaker 1: beam out and then you measure how long it tastes 437 00:22:21,560 --> 00:22:23,320 Speaker 1: for it to come back, and that's how you know 438 00:22:23,400 --> 00:22:26,119 Speaker 1: how far it went. Yeah, but you don't need to 439 00:22:26,119 --> 00:22:29,640 Speaker 1: measure the time because lasers are light and light has 440 00:22:29,680 --> 00:22:32,080 Speaker 1: wave like properties and so it wiggles. So if you 441 00:22:32,119 --> 00:22:35,800 Speaker 1: send out two beams of lasers um and then at 442 00:22:35,800 --> 00:22:38,640 Speaker 1: the same direction and they bounce off mirrors and come back, 443 00:22:38,880 --> 00:22:41,000 Speaker 1: they're gonna be wiggling all the way there and wiggling 444 00:22:41,040 --> 00:22:42,639 Speaker 1: all the way back. And when they come back, they 445 00:22:42,680 --> 00:22:45,160 Speaker 1: should be the same place in their wiggle, right either 446 00:22:45,320 --> 00:22:47,520 Speaker 1: up or down. And if they're in the same place 447 00:22:47,520 --> 00:22:50,320 Speaker 1: in their wiggle, they'll add up together. If they're opposite 448 00:22:50,320 --> 00:22:52,439 Speaker 1: places in their wiggle, like one of them went a 449 00:22:52,480 --> 00:22:54,639 Speaker 1: little bit further and now instead of being in the 450 00:22:54,760 --> 00:22:57,000 Speaker 1: up wiggle it's at the down wiggle. Then those two 451 00:22:57,040 --> 00:23:00,760 Speaker 1: will add up to be zero destructive interference. And so 452 00:23:00,800 --> 00:23:03,240 Speaker 1: that's the interferometer. Part of the of the of the 453 00:23:03,280 --> 00:23:05,520 Speaker 1: experiment is that they send out these two pulses of 454 00:23:05,600 --> 00:23:08,600 Speaker 1: lasers and when they come back, they see are they 455 00:23:08,680 --> 00:23:11,440 Speaker 1: interfering positively by adding up on top of each other 456 00:23:11,720 --> 00:23:15,520 Speaker 1: or interfering negatively by canceling each other out. They're interfering negatively. 457 00:23:15,800 --> 00:23:18,280 Speaker 1: It means one of them wiggles a little bit longer 458 00:23:18,320 --> 00:23:20,040 Speaker 1: than the other one were a little bit shorter, and 459 00:23:20,040 --> 00:23:21,879 Speaker 1: now they're out of sync. I see. So it's not 460 00:23:21,920 --> 00:23:25,200 Speaker 1: like you're measuring whether the distance in one direction change. 461 00:23:25,480 --> 00:23:29,520 Speaker 1: You're measuring whether it change relative to the other direction exactly. 462 00:23:29,680 --> 00:23:32,280 Speaker 1: And that's what these ways do. They shrink space in 463 00:23:32,280 --> 00:23:35,160 Speaker 1: one direction and stretch it in the other direction exactly, 464 00:23:35,200 --> 00:23:37,399 Speaker 1: And so that's what you're looking for. And they actually 465 00:23:37,440 --> 00:23:40,720 Speaker 1: have multiple observatories. They have one in Louisiana and one 466 00:23:40,720 --> 00:23:43,920 Speaker 1: in Washington State, and they're finishing one or just finished 467 00:23:43,920 --> 00:23:46,119 Speaker 1: one in Italy, and they're building other ones around the 468 00:23:46,160 --> 00:23:49,040 Speaker 1: world and the idea and they're all pointed in different directions, 469 00:23:49,040 --> 00:23:51,360 Speaker 1: and there are different locations so you can use those 470 00:23:51,400 --> 00:23:53,960 Speaker 1: multiple telescopes to tell you like is it real you know, 471 00:23:54,080 --> 00:23:56,080 Speaker 1: or is it just like a semi truck driving over 472 00:23:56,119 --> 00:23:58,879 Speaker 1: it which is shaking all of my mirrors, or and 473 00:23:58,920 --> 00:24:00,600 Speaker 1: you can also do it to tell where did it 474 00:24:00,680 --> 00:24:03,760 Speaker 1: come from, because if it landed in Washington before it 475 00:24:03,880 --> 00:24:06,760 Speaker 1: landed in Louisiana, then you can tell which direction it 476 00:24:06,800 --> 00:24:08,560 Speaker 1: came from. You can use it to sort of triangulate. 477 00:24:08,640 --> 00:24:12,560 Speaker 1: It's interesting how the word telescope changes right because of physicists. Right, 478 00:24:12,600 --> 00:24:16,040 Speaker 1: like people think of the telescope. Is this tube that 479 00:24:16,080 --> 00:24:19,320 Speaker 1: you look through to tell how far ships are away 480 00:24:19,320 --> 00:24:21,520 Speaker 1: from me or something, or how far land is, that's 481 00:24:21,520 --> 00:24:25,600 Speaker 1: a telescope. But nowadays telescope and science way means you know, 482 00:24:25,600 --> 00:24:27,760 Speaker 1: it could mean a giant antenna, or it could mean 483 00:24:27,800 --> 00:24:29,760 Speaker 1: like an array of antennas, or it could be like 484 00:24:29,800 --> 00:24:33,600 Speaker 1: these crazy long laser tunnels spread all over the world. 485 00:24:33,680 --> 00:24:36,560 Speaker 1: Like you call that a telescope. Yeah, well I think telescope. 486 00:24:36,720 --> 00:24:39,080 Speaker 1: I'm not a linguist, but I think telescope essentially means 487 00:24:39,400 --> 00:24:42,760 Speaker 1: seeing far away, and so you can just generalize it 488 00:24:42,800 --> 00:24:45,280 Speaker 1: to mean we don't have to see only with light, right, 489 00:24:45,320 --> 00:24:47,919 Speaker 1: we can see with other things, And so you're right. 490 00:24:48,000 --> 00:24:49,919 Speaker 1: I think that's an awesome use of the word telescope, 491 00:24:49,920 --> 00:24:52,879 Speaker 1: because as we invent new kinds of technologies and new 492 00:24:52,960 --> 00:24:55,560 Speaker 1: kinds of telescopes, it gives us other ways to look 493 00:24:55,600 --> 00:24:57,639 Speaker 1: out into the universe. Right, and you know, we're in 494 00:24:57,640 --> 00:24:59,920 Speaker 1: this tiny little dot in a corner of the universe, 495 00:25:00,320 --> 00:25:03,240 Speaker 1: desperately drinking in the information that the universe is sending 496 00:25:03,280 --> 00:25:06,560 Speaker 1: to us. It's wonderful to imagine. Can we have another 497 00:25:06,600 --> 00:25:08,960 Speaker 1: way to listen to the universe? Can we have another 498 00:25:09,000 --> 00:25:11,760 Speaker 1: way to get information about where we are and what's 499 00:25:11,800 --> 00:25:13,880 Speaker 1: going on around us? Well, that's what people say. It's 500 00:25:13,920 --> 00:25:16,879 Speaker 1: so significant about the discovery of gravitation waves is that 501 00:25:16,960 --> 00:25:20,560 Speaker 1: it gives us another way to listen to the universe. 502 00:25:20,680 --> 00:25:22,480 Speaker 1: Right as people say that it's like a new way 503 00:25:22,520 --> 00:25:25,119 Speaker 1: of listening to the universe. Yeah, that's right, and it 504 00:25:25,240 --> 00:25:28,080 Speaker 1: is amazing and dramatic. Um a couple of quibbles though. 505 00:25:28,119 --> 00:25:31,359 Speaker 1: Sometimes people say it's the first time we have another 506 00:25:31,400 --> 00:25:34,080 Speaker 1: way to listen to the universe. Right, they say, forever 507 00:25:34,160 --> 00:25:37,080 Speaker 1: we've been doing astronomy using only light, and now we 508 00:25:37,160 --> 00:25:40,359 Speaker 1: have a second method. It's not exactly true, because we 509 00:25:40,400 --> 00:25:42,840 Speaker 1: have also have particles. For example, we've been using new 510 00:25:42,880 --> 00:25:45,640 Speaker 1: trinos to look at the universe, and we've been detecting 511 00:25:45,680 --> 00:25:48,879 Speaker 1: neutrinos for a while now. So it is true that 512 00:25:48,880 --> 00:25:52,639 Speaker 1: we're adding to our our tool belt by adding gravitational waves, 513 00:25:52,640 --> 00:25:55,600 Speaker 1: and it's hugely important and fascinating, but it's not the 514 00:25:55,720 --> 00:25:57,919 Speaker 1: first time we have a new tool in our So 515 00:25:57,960 --> 00:26:00,680 Speaker 1: primarily before the only way we've even know about the 516 00:26:00,720 --> 00:26:03,400 Speaker 1: rest of the universe or what's going on is by 517 00:26:03,440 --> 00:26:06,320 Speaker 1: the light or the particles that come to us. Yeah, 518 00:26:06,359 --> 00:26:09,520 Speaker 1: the photons from stars and from other galaxies. Yeah, it's 519 00:26:09,520 --> 00:26:11,880 Speaker 1: all been photons, Like the radio waves, those are all 520 00:26:11,920 --> 00:26:15,080 Speaker 1: photons and in light, different kinds of light. But now 521 00:26:15,359 --> 00:26:18,080 Speaker 1: in addition to particles and light, we have this other 522 00:26:18,080 --> 00:26:21,119 Speaker 1: way of like knowing what's going on elsewhere in the universe, 523 00:26:21,200 --> 00:26:23,960 Speaker 1: which is these gravitational waves. And it's really important, not 524 00:26:24,000 --> 00:26:26,960 Speaker 1: just because it's cool, new shiny tool, which is fun, 525 00:26:27,280 --> 00:26:30,479 Speaker 1: but because gravitational waves can do things that particles can't. Right, 526 00:26:30,520 --> 00:26:33,879 Speaker 1: gravitational waves are not moving through space, so they're not 527 00:26:33,960 --> 00:26:36,840 Speaker 1: like blocked the way things move through space are, right, 528 00:26:37,080 --> 00:26:40,160 Speaker 1: there's no dust cloud that can block a gravitational wave. 529 00:26:40,480 --> 00:26:42,679 Speaker 1: They don't get like attenuated. If they hit a big 530 00:26:42,720 --> 00:26:45,439 Speaker 1: black hole or something, well, they can be they attenuated 531 00:26:45,480 --> 00:26:47,439 Speaker 1: the further way you are, right, like everything else, they 532 00:26:47,440 --> 00:26:49,280 Speaker 1: spread out through space and they get weaker and weaker, 533 00:26:49,680 --> 00:26:51,959 Speaker 1: but they can't be blocked by matter. I mean they 534 00:26:52,000 --> 00:26:54,240 Speaker 1: can get they can if you have another gravitational wave, 535 00:26:54,280 --> 00:26:56,560 Speaker 1: you can they can get reflected or distorted or something. 536 00:26:56,880 --> 00:26:59,520 Speaker 1: But it's a it's penetrates through things which are otherwise 537 00:26:59,520 --> 00:27:03,360 Speaker 1: invisible to us and can send us messages from inside 538 00:27:03,359 --> 00:27:06,240 Speaker 1: things that otherwise would be opaque to us. And so 539 00:27:06,320 --> 00:27:08,960 Speaker 1: it's a really powerful, fascinating new tool. It really is 540 00:27:09,440 --> 00:27:11,480 Speaker 1: like we're opening up a new kind of eye to 541 00:27:11,560 --> 00:27:13,960 Speaker 1: the universe for the first time. One of the other 542 00:27:14,000 --> 00:27:16,960 Speaker 1: crazy things about gravitational waves is that we had no 543 00:27:17,040 --> 00:27:20,439 Speaker 1: idea how often they came, right. One tricky thing is 544 00:27:20,920 --> 00:27:23,240 Speaker 1: can you see them at all? Right? The second tricky 545 00:27:23,280 --> 00:27:25,679 Speaker 1: thing was are there any anyway? Right? It could have 546 00:27:25,680 --> 00:27:28,080 Speaker 1: been that we're really good at seeing them. We developed 547 00:27:28,080 --> 00:27:31,280 Speaker 1: this amazing technology, were super sensitive to these tiny little effects. 548 00:27:31,480 --> 00:27:33,439 Speaker 1: But they only come once every hundred years. You mean, 549 00:27:33,480 --> 00:27:36,320 Speaker 1: like the kinds of events that would generate them in 550 00:27:36,359 --> 00:27:39,600 Speaker 1: a large enough way for us to detect may not 551 00:27:39,760 --> 00:27:41,960 Speaker 1: be happening as as often as we think, like these 552 00:27:41,960 --> 00:27:45,000 Speaker 1: black holes crashing into each other, or these neutron stars 553 00:27:45,240 --> 00:27:48,960 Speaker 1: flushing down the toilet. Maybe these things were rare, right, Yeah, 554 00:27:49,000 --> 00:27:51,480 Speaker 1: we didn't know, right, And but the first time that 555 00:27:51,640 --> 00:27:55,600 Speaker 1: they turned on the experiment with their new powerful capability. 556 00:27:55,640 --> 00:27:58,359 Speaker 1: They've been incrementally improving it for decades, but when they 557 00:27:58,400 --> 00:28:00,159 Speaker 1: first got to the place where they thought, okay, now 558 00:28:00,200 --> 00:28:02,160 Speaker 1: we really think we can see them, they saw one 559 00:28:02,240 --> 00:28:04,680 Speaker 1: within like a day of the first time they turned 560 00:28:04,720 --> 00:28:08,400 Speaker 1: it on. It was incredible. And now they've been seeing many, many, many. 561 00:28:08,440 --> 00:28:10,640 Speaker 1: They have like a huge pile of these things they've 562 00:28:10,680 --> 00:28:13,840 Speaker 1: been studying, and so that's really exciting because it could 563 00:28:13,840 --> 00:28:15,359 Speaker 1: have been that you turned on this new telescope and 564 00:28:15,400 --> 00:28:17,520 Speaker 1: the universe was just really quiet and there's nothing, didn't 565 00:28:17,520 --> 00:28:19,399 Speaker 1: really have anything to say, But it turns out it's 566 00:28:19,440 --> 00:28:21,440 Speaker 1: got a lot to say, and these things happen more 567 00:28:21,480 --> 00:28:24,359 Speaker 1: often than people hoped, and so now we can learn 568 00:28:24,400 --> 00:28:26,840 Speaker 1: more about like things like the black holes crushing, right, 569 00:28:26,880 --> 00:28:29,720 Speaker 1: and neutron stars crushing and what happens in those like 570 00:28:29,800 --> 00:28:33,560 Speaker 1: extreme moments of physics. Yeah, yeah, exactly. So I think 571 00:28:33,600 --> 00:28:36,240 Speaker 1: one of the really exciting things is that we have 572 00:28:36,400 --> 00:28:38,640 Speaker 1: this new eye on the universe, this knew way to 573 00:28:38,680 --> 00:28:42,320 Speaker 1: look at the universe. And in addition, there's cool stuff 574 00:28:42,320 --> 00:28:44,239 Speaker 1: to see. Right, So one of the cool things they 575 00:28:44,240 --> 00:28:47,320 Speaker 1: saw recently was not just two black holes colliding, but 576 00:28:47,440 --> 00:28:51,160 Speaker 1: two neutron stars colliding well. And the fascinating thing about 577 00:28:51,200 --> 00:28:54,080 Speaker 1: that is that they saw through the gravitational waves and 578 00:28:54,240 --> 00:28:58,240 Speaker 1: at the same time they saw through telescopes using normal light, 579 00:28:58,560 --> 00:29:00,640 Speaker 1: So they could see these two things happen end through 580 00:29:00,720 --> 00:29:03,480 Speaker 1: two kinds of vision overlaid on top of each other. 581 00:29:03,760 --> 00:29:06,320 Speaker 1: That was really pretty awesome. Yeah. I like the way 582 00:29:06,360 --> 00:29:10,440 Speaker 1: they always describe this project, which is which is very poetic. 583 00:29:10,520 --> 00:29:12,840 Speaker 1: I feel like it's like they always say, imagine if 584 00:29:12,880 --> 00:29:15,720 Speaker 1: you're deaf your whole life. I mean, you could look 585 00:29:15,840 --> 00:29:18,440 Speaker 1: look around you, but you can't hear anything, and then 586 00:29:18,440 --> 00:29:20,719 Speaker 1: all of a sudden, somebody gives you the ability to 587 00:29:20,800 --> 00:29:22,959 Speaker 1: hear stuff, and so now you not only can you 588 00:29:23,000 --> 00:29:26,479 Speaker 1: see stuff with light, but you can also kind of 589 00:29:26,480 --> 00:29:29,480 Speaker 1: hear them through this whole other channel. Yeah, there's some 590 00:29:29,520 --> 00:29:31,840 Speaker 1: poetry there. Sometimes I think they take it a a little 591 00:29:31,880 --> 00:29:36,600 Speaker 1: too far because in science communication articles about this, they 592 00:29:36,600 --> 00:29:39,640 Speaker 1: often describe this as listening to the universe, or and 593 00:29:39,720 --> 00:29:41,920 Speaker 1: you can hear the chirp, you know. I think that 594 00:29:41,960 --> 00:29:45,440 Speaker 1: gives people the impression that gravitational waves are sound, or 595 00:29:45,440 --> 00:29:48,800 Speaker 1: that colliding black holes make a sound. Remember that space 596 00:29:48,880 --> 00:29:52,040 Speaker 1: is quiet. Sound can't go through space because there's no air. 597 00:29:52,480 --> 00:29:55,040 Speaker 1: So these are gravitational waves, and you can take the 598 00:29:55,120 --> 00:29:58,640 Speaker 1: frequency of those waves and transform it into sound waves 599 00:29:58,720 --> 00:30:01,480 Speaker 1: and listen to it. Way you can take the frequency 600 00:30:01,520 --> 00:30:04,720 Speaker 1: of anything and transform it into sound waves, like people 601 00:30:04,760 --> 00:30:08,000 Speaker 1: took the Higgs Boson events and transform them into sound waves, 602 00:30:08,040 --> 00:30:10,480 Speaker 1: and you're like listening to the Higgs boson. I don't 603 00:30:10,480 --> 00:30:12,800 Speaker 1: really think you're listening to the Higgs boson, so you're 604 00:30:12,840 --> 00:30:15,760 Speaker 1: not really listening to the universe. But poetically, I agree, 605 00:30:15,760 --> 00:30:19,360 Speaker 1: it's another way to get information from the universe. Yeah, 606 00:30:19,360 --> 00:30:22,080 Speaker 1: it totally works as an analogy, but I think some 607 00:30:22,160 --> 00:30:24,440 Speaker 1: people think it's literal, and I just want to make 608 00:30:24,440 --> 00:30:27,080 Speaker 1: the point that it's not literally listening to the universe. 609 00:30:27,160 --> 00:30:31,160 Speaker 1: These are gravitational waves, not sound waves, although they kind 610 00:30:31,160 --> 00:30:33,560 Speaker 1: of propagate in a similar way right well, in the 611 00:30:33,560 --> 00:30:36,360 Speaker 1: same way that that waves do propagate. But you know, 612 00:30:36,560 --> 00:30:39,920 Speaker 1: water waves are compression waves through a medium and gravitational 613 00:30:39,960 --> 00:30:43,480 Speaker 1: waves are ripples in space, and so it's a little 614 00:30:43,480 --> 00:30:46,240 Speaker 1: bit different. But and the analogy is very very useful 615 00:30:46,400 --> 00:30:48,800 Speaker 1: as long as you remember it's an analogy. Don't stick 616 00:30:48,800 --> 00:30:51,880 Speaker 1: your ear into space and expect to hear gravitational waves. 617 00:30:51,880 --> 00:30:53,479 Speaker 1: Not a good idea. Yeah, I know, it's like it's 618 00:30:53,560 --> 00:30:55,200 Speaker 1: very poetic. It's like, all of a sudden you can 619 00:30:55,240 --> 00:30:58,200 Speaker 1: hear and suddenly you're hearing all these toilet flushings across 620 00:30:58,240 --> 00:31:03,120 Speaker 1: the costmos. It's very poetic. Exactly listen to the universe 621 00:31:03,160 --> 00:31:06,200 Speaker 1: flushing away its waste. Well, on that note, thank you 622 00:31:06,280 --> 00:31:09,440 Speaker 1: very much for listening. I hope you guys enjoyed that discussion. 623 00:31:09,680 --> 00:31:12,080 Speaker 1: It's a pretty heavy topic and I hope we handled 624 00:31:12,080 --> 00:31:15,040 Speaker 1: it with gravitas. Yeah, I hope you didn't get gravitation 625 00:31:15,120 --> 00:31:18,240 Speaker 1: at least. All right, Well, thank you very much. Have 626 00:31:18,360 --> 00:31:25,680 Speaker 1: a great day, guys. Do you have a question you 627 00:31:25,720 --> 00:31:28,280 Speaker 1: wish we would cover, Send it to us. We'd love 628 00:31:28,320 --> 00:31:30,959 Speaker 1: to hear from you. You can find us on Facebook, Twitter, 629 00:31:31,120 --> 00:31:35,200 Speaker 1: and Instagram at Daniel and Jorge One Word, or email 630 00:31:35,280 --> 00:31:51,760 Speaker 1: us to feedback at Daniel and Jorge dot com.