WEBVTT - Making Waves with Gravitational Astronomy 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:07.160 Brought to you by Toyota. Let's go places. Welcome to 0:00:07.360 --> 0:00:14.880 Forward Thinking. Hey there, and welcomed up Forward Thinking, the 0:00:15.120 --> 0:00:18.040 podcast that looks at the future and said, we're waxing 0:00:18.079 --> 0:00:21.520 down our surfboards. We can't wait for June. I'm Jonathan 0:00:21.560 --> 0:00:25.079 Strickland and I'm Joe McCormick. And today is going to 0:00:25.160 --> 0:00:27.000 be Is it gonna be? What do we call it? 0:00:27.080 --> 0:00:28.880 Part two? It's at least going to be a follow 0:00:28.960 --> 0:00:31.360 up to our most recent podcast, the one that came 0:00:31.400 --> 0:00:33.640 out right before this, which was about the discovery of 0:00:33.680 --> 0:00:40.839 gravitational waves at the Ligo facilities in September. Yes, and 0:00:40.920 --> 0:00:43.559 so in that last episode we talked about how the 0:00:43.600 --> 0:00:47.720 discovery happened, what gravitational waves are, and how they were 0:00:47.720 --> 0:00:50.199 eventually found. But in this episode, we wanted to talk 0:00:50.240 --> 0:00:53.680 about what it all means now that we have found 0:00:53.720 --> 0:00:58.160 and confirmed the existence of gravitational waves in our universe. Yeah, 0:00:58.200 --> 0:01:01.560 so let's let's talk a little bit about some more 0:01:01.600 --> 0:01:05.600 specifics about Ligo and also what this is going to 0:01:06.000 --> 0:01:08.640 You know, how we see this unfolding doesn't have any 0:01:08.720 --> 0:01:13.720 practical impact on your life as a what I am 0:01:13.760 --> 0:01:16.959 assuming is a normal human being out there you might 0:01:17.080 --> 0:01:20.040 be a crawfish monster. You could be. We talked a 0:01:20.120 --> 0:01:23.680 lot about those in their last episode two. I'm not 0:01:23.680 --> 0:01:26.360 going to judge either way, but I do either way 0:01:26.400 --> 0:01:29.200 want to tell you about some cool things about LIGO, 0:01:29.480 --> 0:01:32.759 and that's that well, and in the discovery process in general. 0:01:32.840 --> 0:01:35.480 So you know, even though like three dudes started this 0:01:35.480 --> 0:01:40.200 whole crazy ride back in the paper that announced the discovery, 0:01:40.200 --> 0:01:42.880 which is titled by the way, Observation of Gravitational Waves 0:01:42.880 --> 0:01:46.320 from a Binary black Hole Merger has over a thousand 0:01:46.360 --> 0:01:50.360 authors scientific cooperation, y'all. Just that's so cool. It's very 0:01:50.400 --> 0:01:53.760 inspirational to see. And you know, like we mentioned before 0:01:53.960 --> 0:01:56.360 the fact that LIGO had to had to go through 0:01:56.480 --> 0:02:00.480 an upgrade process from fifteen and that was an international 0:02:00.520 --> 0:02:05.840 collaboration also really inspiring. Yeah. Yeah, And and now that 0:02:05.920 --> 0:02:09.440 LGO is is working in this way, researchers expected to 0:02:09.520 --> 0:02:12.239 make tens of observations every year. And usually when you 0:02:12.280 --> 0:02:15.120 say tens of tens of anything, you're kind of making 0:02:15.120 --> 0:02:17.360 fun of it. But in this case, that's really cool 0:02:18.080 --> 0:02:20.000 because it will give us so much more data to 0:02:20.040 --> 0:02:22.960 work with. And again, you know, we're talking about events 0:02:23.000 --> 0:02:26.840 that are happening billions of years ago. So uh, it's 0:02:26.919 --> 0:02:29.880 it's stuff that like, you know, if if it happened 0:02:30.360 --> 0:02:32.720 a billion years ago, but the event was four billion 0:02:32.800 --> 0:02:35.520 light years away, there's no way for us to detect 0:02:35.560 --> 0:02:38.680 it because gravitational waves are limited, as is everything else 0:02:38.760 --> 0:02:40.640 by the speed of light. They can only travel as 0:02:40.680 --> 0:02:43.440 fast as the speed of light. Maybe not everything else, 0:02:43.520 --> 0:02:46.960 Maybe not the expansion of space during inflation. Well that's different. 0:02:47.040 --> 0:02:50.160 That's different. That's that's the universe itself, not stuff within 0:02:50.240 --> 0:02:53.280 the universe. I admitted, I got you, Jonathan. I admit 0:02:53.480 --> 0:02:56.320 nothing except that I did accidentally say gravity waves in 0:02:56.320 --> 0:02:58.680 the last episode SI gravitational waves. I will admit that 0:02:59.160 --> 0:03:01.520 it's on tape. Okay, okay, But back to what it 0:03:01.560 --> 0:03:04.560 all means. So we have discovered gravitational waves that with 0:03:04.680 --> 0:03:07.919 the Lego facility, we hope to discover many more and 0:03:07.919 --> 0:03:09.880 and learn more about them all the time. But what 0:03:09.919 --> 0:03:13.760 does this all mean for the state of physics today? Well, first, 0:03:13.919 --> 0:03:18.840 it is yet another piece of evidence that supports Einstein's 0:03:19.040 --> 0:03:22.519 theory of general relativity. So darn and I hate Einstein 0:03:22.560 --> 0:03:25.720 being right all the time. Props to you, Mr Einstein. 0:03:25.840 --> 0:03:30.720 I want him to crash and burn someday. Well he's dead, 0:03:31.040 --> 0:03:35.600 so he got that going, I mean his theories. I 0:03:35.640 --> 0:03:38.240 want us to discover that in fact, Newton was right. 0:03:38.280 --> 0:03:40.800 I mean his brain was stolen for a while. So 0:03:40.960 --> 0:03:43.760 there's that too. Yeah, yeah, you're you're already two up 0:03:43.760 --> 0:03:46.760 on Einstein. Your brain is exactly where it's supposed to 0:03:46.800 --> 0:03:49.280 be in yours. It was his eyeballs too, wouldn't it, 0:03:49.280 --> 0:03:52.760 I think? So, yeah, yeah it was. That's a lacky 0:03:52.800 --> 0:03:55.840 story for another time at any rate. Uh So, it 0:03:55.880 --> 0:03:58.320 doesn't mean that the general theory of relativity is going 0:03:58.360 --> 0:04:01.160 to become a scientific law, that's friend. But it does 0:04:01.600 --> 0:04:06.600 support yet more predictions that were made from general relativity. 0:04:06.720 --> 0:04:11.080 So if you say, if general relativity is correct, then 0:04:11.160 --> 0:04:15.040 we would expect X. This was one of those X 0:04:15.160 --> 0:04:18.320 things that we would expect, and in fact, we've now 0:04:18.320 --> 0:04:21.680 discovered it that we've we've found that the evidence of it, 0:04:22.200 --> 0:04:26.800 we can say, yes, this is definitely correct, which is phenomenal. 0:04:26.920 --> 0:04:29.680 Right that that yet, again we've seen how general relativity 0:04:29.720 --> 0:04:33.040 matches up with reality as we see it, as we 0:04:33.080 --> 0:04:37.000 can observe it. Now, that doesn't mean that general relativity 0:04:37.040 --> 0:04:41.280 is going to be absolutely all encompassing. There's still big 0:04:41.320 --> 0:04:44.320 gaps for us to fill in. How about the quantum 0:04:44.400 --> 0:04:49.240 level exactly. But it is really an awesome display of 0:04:49.279 --> 0:04:54.440 Einstein's ability to suss things out to a level that 0:04:54.600 --> 0:04:57.200 is almost inhuman as far as I'm concerned, Like, it's 0:04:57.360 --> 0:05:00.400 so amazing to me that he can make these actions 0:05:00.480 --> 0:05:03.800 that he had absolutely no way of testing. And then 0:05:04.000 --> 0:05:07.279 a hundred years later we get the news that, yeah, no, 0:05:07.400 --> 0:05:09.799 he was totally right about that. Well, they did eventually 0:05:09.839 --> 0:05:12.920 have ways of testing the predictions of general relativity. But yeah, 0:05:13.040 --> 0:05:15.880 what you're you're correct about is that Einstein didn't have 0:05:15.960 --> 0:05:19.200 a test that he used to come up with general relativity. 0:05:19.400 --> 0:05:22.080 You're correct. I was specifically thinking about the prediction of 0:05:22.080 --> 0:05:24.520 gravitational waves that there was no way for him to 0:05:24.520 --> 0:05:26.800 test for that. There were certainly ways to test for 0:05:26.880 --> 0:05:29.640 other elements of general relativity, but the specific prediction of 0:05:29.680 --> 0:05:33.240 gravitational waves that was something that they could not easily 0:05:33.360 --> 0:05:36.880 test for. Back in nineteen sixteen when he published the theory, 0:05:37.360 --> 0:05:39.320 other things that were becoming more sure about as a 0:05:39.320 --> 0:05:43.800 result of this black holes, black holes. Yeah, so finally 0:05:43.839 --> 0:05:46.840 we're we've got, like I mentioned in the previous episode, 0:05:46.880 --> 0:05:50.240 the strongest evidence so far for the existence of black holes. 0:05:51.400 --> 0:05:55.520 I think by and large the astronomy and astrophysics community 0:05:55.600 --> 0:05:58.320 was convinced of the existence of black holes already, but 0:05:58.400 --> 0:06:01.000 this is another really good piece of evidence for them. Well, 0:06:01.040 --> 0:06:04.039 they were also convinced of the existence of gravitational waves. 0:06:04.080 --> 0:06:06.280 But again it's one of those things where you say, 0:06:06.480 --> 0:06:10.560 this evidence is yet more support for this thing that 0:06:10.640 --> 0:06:15.000 we cannot directly observe, right so uh. And and furthermore, 0:06:15.120 --> 0:06:18.560 that that black holes can exist in binary systems. Yes, 0:06:18.839 --> 0:06:21.520 that you can get two black holes orbiting one another 0:06:21.560 --> 0:06:26.400 and then coalescing into a a single black hole while 0:06:26.480 --> 0:06:30.960 vaporizing three solar masses worth of material, which again still 0:06:31.000 --> 0:06:35.279 blows my mind. Um. Beyond that, we also are are 0:06:35.320 --> 0:06:39.039 now able to track celestial objects that don't emit visible 0:06:39.160 --> 0:06:43.920 light or any electromagnetic radiation at all, as long as 0:06:43.960 --> 0:06:47.000 they are massive enough, if the event that they are 0:06:47.080 --> 0:06:52.000 undergoing is violent enough to generate gravitational waves, clearly, if 0:06:52.040 --> 0:06:55.159 they're if they're small, if the gravitational waves are very 0:06:55.200 --> 0:06:57.320 tiny and weak and really far away so that by 0:06:57.320 --> 0:06:59.480 the time they get here, they're they're so weak as 0:06:59.520 --> 0:07:03.360 to be under textable, that's not gonna the Lego is 0:07:03.400 --> 0:07:05.839 not gonna make any difference in that. But for stuff 0:07:05.839 --> 0:07:10.080 that we cannot see but does create significant gravitational waves, 0:07:10.360 --> 0:07:13.000 now we have a way of detecting that, and that 0:07:13.000 --> 0:07:16.440 that means that we're going to get information about stuff 0:07:16.440 --> 0:07:19.160 that we know about but haven't been able to directly observe, 0:07:19.280 --> 0:07:23.440 and potentially find out about stuff we didn't even know existed, 0:07:23.720 --> 0:07:26.560 Like we literally had no clue because there was no 0:07:26.640 --> 0:07:29.800 way to observe it. Now we've got a new way 0:07:29.960 --> 0:07:34.200 to Yeah. I've read quotes from a couple of different 0:07:34.240 --> 0:07:39.080 scientists involved with this project who have compared the ligo 0:07:39.200 --> 0:07:43.760 method to essentially gaining a new sense for a person. 0:07:44.160 --> 0:07:47.080 One example I want to quote is from Miriam Kramer's 0:07:47.120 --> 0:07:50.240 piece on mash Double about gravitational waves, where she interviewed 0:07:50.240 --> 0:07:55.240 the LEGO scientists Subull Schmarka who explained it this way quote, 0:07:56.080 --> 0:07:59.360 Imagine that you have all of your senses, but you 0:07:59.440 --> 0:08:03.200 can't year and the first day you gain hearing, you 0:08:03.280 --> 0:08:06.160 get a new life. Imagine how your life would change 0:08:06.200 --> 0:08:09.360 if you can actually observe since your surroundings in a 0:08:09.440 --> 0:08:12.320 very different way. This is what we actually gain with 0:08:12.360 --> 0:08:15.720 gravitational waves. And another one along the same lines was 0:08:16.640 --> 0:08:21.120 David Rights to Physics World. He said, we have been deaf, 0:08:21.160 --> 0:08:23.680 but now we can hear them. We now expect to 0:08:23.680 --> 0:08:26.320 hear things we never expected as we opened a new 0:08:26.360 --> 0:08:29.760 window of astronomy. This was a scientific moon shot, and 0:08:29.800 --> 0:08:32.120 we did it. We landed on the moon. Yeah. And 0:08:32.280 --> 0:08:36.200 I've seen that analogy of being able to listen to 0:08:36.240 --> 0:08:39.800 the universe and hear what was going on in the universe. 0:08:39.840 --> 0:08:42.400 I've seen that over and over from multiple people who 0:08:42.440 --> 0:08:45.560 worked on this project and other physicists who didn't work 0:08:45.559 --> 0:08:48.480 directly on the project but are obviously very much interested 0:08:48.520 --> 0:08:52.960 and invested in its outcome. And that particular phrase, you know, 0:08:53.120 --> 0:08:55.880 listening or hearing what is going on, has been used 0:08:56.000 --> 0:08:58.160 multiple times, and I think it is a very elegant 0:08:58.160 --> 0:09:01.040 way of putting it. This side. Yeah, and again it 0:09:01.120 --> 0:09:05.320 kind of uh compares gravitational waves to sound waves. This 0:09:05.360 --> 0:09:08.160 idea of this thing propagating out through the universe, but 0:09:08.240 --> 0:09:12.760 at the speed of light and passing through everything it encounters. 0:09:12.800 --> 0:09:15.960 It's not blocked by other bodies, so it will eventually 0:09:16.000 --> 0:09:18.959 make its way throughout the universe, maybe not strong enough 0:09:19.000 --> 0:09:21.600 for us to detect, but it will come to us 0:09:21.640 --> 0:09:24.320 at some point. Uh. And it means that we're gonna 0:09:24.320 --> 0:09:29.120 be able to study lots of stuff much more um 0:09:29.160 --> 0:09:32.760 intricately than we could before, things like supernova explosions and 0:09:32.800 --> 0:09:37.760 neutron stars and more information about black holes and learn 0:09:38.400 --> 0:09:40.360 you know, all there is to learn that we can 0:09:40.520 --> 0:09:44.400 so far. Uh, it expands that that possibility. Like if 0:09:44.440 --> 0:09:47.480 you think about the things that um that we could 0:09:47.520 --> 0:09:53.880 potentially learn before we had observatories like Lego, there was 0:09:53.880 --> 0:09:56.400 a limit, right, there was there was a hard limit 0:09:56.440 --> 0:09:59.000 to what we could learn just because of the limitations 0:09:59.040 --> 0:10:03.080 on our instrument taition our knowledge. Now we've got a 0:10:03.120 --> 0:10:06.920 brand new way to observe, so who knows what we 0:10:06.960 --> 0:10:10.040 will learn. It is probably one of the most exciting 0:10:10.720 --> 0:10:14.320 things about astronomy right now, in fact, maybe the most 0:10:14.360 --> 0:10:17.000 exciting thing about astronomy at the moment. And it's already 0:10:17.080 --> 0:10:20.920 changing some of what we thought we knew about about 0:10:20.920 --> 0:10:24.800 black holes specifically, Yeah, it's changing what we know about 0:10:24.800 --> 0:10:27.600 black holes. For example. One of the things that was 0:10:27.679 --> 0:10:29.640 kind of interesting was they said they were looking at 0:10:29.640 --> 0:10:33.560 the angular momentum, essentially the spin of the black holes, 0:10:33.600 --> 0:10:35.920 so not the orbits of the black holes, but the 0:10:36.000 --> 0:10:38.760 actual individual spins and they said that it ended up 0:10:39.000 --> 0:10:42.760 the spin of the whole collision ended up being different 0:10:42.800 --> 0:10:46.280 from what they had expected. Uh, and they're not sure why. 0:10:46.640 --> 0:10:50.160 They don't know why. They they have no idea this. 0:10:50.160 --> 0:10:52.240 This is really exciting because now we have to ask 0:10:52.280 --> 0:10:55.679 ourselves why we're the black holes spinning at a different 0:10:55.880 --> 0:10:59.000 rate than what we had anticipated. Was it perhaps that 0:10:59.080 --> 0:11:02.679 the two angular momentums of the individual black holes interfered 0:11:02.720 --> 0:11:06.640 with one another and therefore that's what caused the the issue? 0:11:07.040 --> 0:11:09.240 Or is it something totally new, some some kind of 0:11:09.240 --> 0:11:11.880 physics we don't even know. Is there is there variable 0:11:11.880 --> 0:11:14.480 out there that we've totally missed before. Yeah, and it 0:11:14.480 --> 0:11:20.480 could be something well, and it could be called crawfish. Okay, 0:11:20.679 --> 0:11:23.640 let's not go down that dark road yet again. But 0:11:23.760 --> 0:11:27.199 but it could be something that isn't predicted by general relativity. 0:11:27.200 --> 0:11:33.479 It could be something totally new, which again really exciting. UM. 0:11:33.559 --> 0:11:36.400 This also could lead to us having a greater understanding 0:11:36.400 --> 0:11:39.400 of how our universe is expanding and why it's expanding 0:11:39.400 --> 0:11:42.640 at the rate that it is. Um. It also could 0:11:42.800 --> 0:11:45.280 end up giving us a very precise look at how 0:11:45.360 --> 0:11:48.160 much dark energy is in the universe, much more precise 0:11:48.200 --> 0:11:51.520 than any estimation that we have ever made before. Uh, 0:11:51.559 --> 0:11:54.160 And it could open new doors to all sorts of 0:11:54.200 --> 0:11:57.320 new disciplines that we can't anticipate right now. There's a 0:11:57.480 --> 0:12:01.520 term being used called gravitational toronomy. That's really all about 0:12:02.120 --> 0:12:05.160 taking the data from these gravitational waves that we detect 0:12:05.280 --> 0:12:08.280 and then finding out what we can learn from that information. 0:12:09.200 --> 0:12:11.880 And we don't know yet. It's so new that we 0:12:11.920 --> 0:12:14.839 don't even know what to expect. We know that it 0:12:14.840 --> 0:12:18.640 will allow us to look into supernova and neutron stars 0:12:18.640 --> 0:12:21.600 and black holes, but who knows what else will learn? 0:12:21.880 --> 0:12:26.120 But let's let's skip past all of this boring human curiosity. 0:12:27.080 --> 0:12:29.640 I want I want to practical application for this stuff. 0:12:29.679 --> 0:12:32.760 How is it going to work for me? Um? All right, well, 0:12:32.800 --> 0:12:35.719 I want key line pie, but I'm not getting it. 0:12:36.640 --> 0:12:39.480 So what I'm saying is that you want to why 0:12:39.520 --> 0:12:42.160 aren't you getting it? There's a Kroger right next, because 0:12:42.280 --> 0:12:46.760 I'm recording a podcast right now. Uh No. My point 0:12:46.800 --> 0:12:50.360 here is that wanting a practical application of gravitational waves 0:12:50.480 --> 0:12:55.040 is sort of being a little premature. I would argue 0:12:55.440 --> 0:12:59.520 that we don't have any practical application for gravitational waves. 0:13:00.160 --> 0:13:02.440 Uh right now, apart from the fact that it is 0:13:02.480 --> 0:13:06.800 expanding our knowledge to a degree that that we otherwise 0:13:06.840 --> 0:13:09.280 would you know, I would have no access to where's 0:13:09.320 --> 0:13:12.040 my warp drive? Okay, so warp drive. That's an excellent 0:13:12.080 --> 0:13:15.920 that's an excellent way of looking at Well, could gravitational 0:13:15.920 --> 0:13:21.480 waves lead to warp drive? Who knows, maybe centuries from now. 0:13:22.160 --> 0:13:25.560 So gravitational waves do show that spacetime is folding in 0:13:25.559 --> 0:13:28.360 these little ripples, and you could argue that, you know, 0:13:28.440 --> 0:13:31.200 the whole idea behind warp drive or warp systems is 0:13:31.240 --> 0:13:35.280 that you could warp space to decrease the distance between 0:13:35.320 --> 0:13:38.680 you and your destination. So by decreasing that space, you 0:13:38.800 --> 0:13:40.439 decrease the amount of time it takes for you to 0:13:40.480 --> 0:13:43.480 get to where you're going. It's kind of cheating that 0:13:43.480 --> 0:13:46.040 that fact that you cannot travel faster than the speed 0:13:46.040 --> 0:13:48.320 of light. Well, you don't need to trouble faster than 0:13:48.320 --> 0:13:50.120 the speed of light if you can make your destination 0:13:50.240 --> 0:13:54.880 closer to your departure. Right, Yes, But hold on a second. Now, 0:13:55.000 --> 0:13:58.440 what was that figure we had earlier that uh So, 0:13:58.480 --> 0:14:02.040 a gravitational wave of the kind we sensed with lego, 0:14:02.480 --> 0:14:05.360 uh it would take the distance of a kilometer and 0:14:05.480 --> 0:14:09.920 shorten that by one the width of a proton something 0:14:09.960 --> 0:14:12.400 like that. Yeah, so that's not going to be shaving 0:14:12.440 --> 0:14:17.760 a whole lot, maybe if you're a hyper miler in space. Yeah, 0:14:17.800 --> 0:14:20.840 and especially considering that you have to like like vaporize 0:14:21.040 --> 0:14:24.480 three sons in order to do it, not to make 0:14:24.520 --> 0:14:29.320 an omelet without destroying a few star systems, Okay, at 0:14:29.400 --> 0:14:33.520 least not a warp omelet um. So yeah, here's here's 0:14:33.520 --> 0:14:36.600 the thing is that one, we have no practical means 0:14:36.640 --> 0:14:40.000 of warping space time at the moment, apart from like 0:14:40.080 --> 0:14:45.600 some some very experimental science that is of uh questionable 0:14:45.720 --> 0:14:49.960 uh authenticity. And I use that not meaning that I 0:14:50.120 --> 0:14:52.280 personally questioned. I just know that there's a lot of 0:14:52.400 --> 0:14:55.960 argument within the space itself and physics about various engines 0:14:56.040 --> 0:15:00.320 that are at least intended to be a war drive 0:15:00.400 --> 0:15:02.720 of some sort. Well, I mean, I think we're inherently 0:15:02.760 --> 0:15:08.040 talking about a gigantic scale problem, a mass energy scale problem, 0:15:08.120 --> 0:15:12.200 because once you're talking about the kinds of events that 0:15:12.280 --> 0:15:16.400 cause these big gravitational waves, these large perturbations in size 0:15:16.440 --> 0:15:20.160 and distance in space time, you're talking about things on 0:15:20.200 --> 0:15:25.760 the order of the mass of stars and or even yeah, 0:15:25.800 --> 0:15:28.320 in that case, you're talking about like a stellar engineering 0:15:28.480 --> 0:15:31.280 level of technology. Anyway, that we wed have to be 0:15:31.320 --> 0:15:35.680 like a Cardassiev level two system or something. I I 0:15:35.680 --> 0:15:40.080 I am extremely skeptical we will ever create a system 0:15:40.080 --> 0:15:45.920 capable of warping space on any meaningful scale any time 0:15:46.040 --> 0:15:50.040 in the foreseeable future without destroying everything around it in 0:15:50.080 --> 0:15:52.560 the process. If you put that limitation on it, then 0:15:52.600 --> 0:15:57.200 even more so. Yes, okay, alright, warp drives out. But 0:15:57.760 --> 0:16:00.640 what about warping time? Okay, so yeah, we're talking about 0:16:00.640 --> 0:16:03.360 space times. Time travel is clearly going to come up. 0:16:03.720 --> 0:16:07.800 Here's the secret, guys. We can all time travel. You're 0:16:07.840 --> 0:16:10.560 doing it right now. Just it's just called waiting around, 0:16:11.600 --> 0:16:14.920 and you travel through time forward at a scale that 0:16:15.120 --> 0:16:20.360 is remarkably consistent dependent upon your speed relative to an 0:16:20.400 --> 0:16:23.280 independent observer. Though another thing we've talked about on the 0:16:23.320 --> 0:16:27.520 podcast before is that it is just an inherent consequence 0:16:27.520 --> 0:16:31.640 of Einstein's theories that travel into the future based on 0:16:31.680 --> 0:16:36.520 your initial reference frame is entirely possible, like accelerating beyond 0:16:36.600 --> 0:16:39.720 the reference frame from which you originated. So if you 0:16:39.720 --> 0:16:42.040 get into a space ship and you travel near the 0:16:42.080 --> 0:16:44.240 speed of light and take a round trip and come 0:16:44.280 --> 0:16:47.600 back to planet Earth. You will have you will have 0:16:47.760 --> 0:16:50.400 aged slower than you would have if you just stayed 0:16:50.400 --> 0:16:53.240 on Earth. Right relative to the people who were back 0:16:53.280 --> 0:16:57.040 on Earth, you would have experienced less time, like you 0:16:57.080 --> 0:17:00.040 would have felt the passage that there have been a 0:17:00.040 --> 0:17:03.000 smaller amount of time passed on the ship than people 0:17:03.000 --> 0:17:05.320 who were still on Earth had felt, because you were 0:17:05.320 --> 0:17:08.639 traveling at this much faster speed. Yeah, you know. And 0:17:08.680 --> 0:17:10.840 it's not just by traveling near the speed of light. 0:17:10.840 --> 0:17:13.040 You could also do this by being next to an 0:17:13.040 --> 0:17:15.960 extremely massive object, and you could hang out next to 0:17:16.000 --> 0:17:18.560 a black hole or something for a while. Yeah. These 0:17:18.600 --> 0:17:23.760 these are both things that will warp time so effectively 0:17:23.840 --> 0:17:26.520 it would be like traveling into the future. It looks 0:17:26.560 --> 0:17:29.119 like from everything we've ever seen that traveling into the 0:17:29.160 --> 0:17:32.680 past is essentially a no go um. There's nothing that 0:17:32.720 --> 0:17:35.040 we've seen that has suggested that that would be that 0:17:35.080 --> 0:17:38.879 would be a possibility based upon uh, these particular theories. 0:17:38.880 --> 0:17:42.000 I mean, there are other alternative theories that have nothing 0:17:42.000 --> 0:17:44.000 to do with what we're talking about, where people have 0:17:44.080 --> 0:17:47.680 positive the possibility. But based upon what we're chatting about 0:17:47.760 --> 0:17:51.160 right now, especially with gravitational waves, not so much. You're 0:17:51.160 --> 0:17:53.120 not gonna be able to go back and have an 0:17:53.119 --> 0:17:57.399 excellent adventure or a bogus journey. Okay, I'm willing to 0:17:57.440 --> 0:18:01.399 scale back my expectations. If I don't to use a 0:18:01.400 --> 0:18:04.040 warp drive or write a t rex, what about what 0:18:04.080 --> 0:18:09.240 about just reconciling quantum physics with classical physics. I have 0:18:09.400 --> 0:18:14.000 heard people say that the did you hear it through 0:18:14.040 --> 0:18:19.280 a grapevine? I did not, not much longer. Will you 0:18:19.359 --> 0:18:22.960 be mine? Joe? I don't think you ever were, honestly, 0:18:22.960 --> 0:18:25.400 when I look at you at all? This took a turn. 0:18:25.440 --> 0:18:29.280 Do you guys want to be alone? Not anymore? Okay? 0:18:29.359 --> 0:18:33.440 So yeah, alright, So so I have I have read 0:18:33.480 --> 0:18:35.960 at least a couple of different accounts that have suggested 0:18:36.000 --> 0:18:39.320 that perhaps the information we learned from gravitational waves could 0:18:39.359 --> 0:18:43.520 help us bridge some gaps between quantum physics and classical physics. 0:18:44.040 --> 0:18:46.359 When I tried to find out what they meant, like, 0:18:46.440 --> 0:18:50.440 how would this bridge any gaps? I started coming up empty. 0:18:50.520 --> 0:18:53.960 So I don't know precisely if the person who was 0:18:54.040 --> 0:18:59.960 saying that was just kind of yeah, just just like maybe, 0:19:00.760 --> 0:19:02.760 or if they were saying it from a place of 0:19:02.800 --> 0:19:07.280 expertise and they just didn't verbalize how they meant it um. 0:19:07.800 --> 0:19:10.760 I on the face of it, I don't know how 0:19:10.840 --> 0:19:13.560 it would bridge gaps. But then I'm not a quantum physicist. 0:19:13.960 --> 0:19:19.120 I have a very very basic grasp of some elementary 0:19:20.400 --> 0:19:24.000 some some some basic elements I should say, of quantum physics, 0:19:24.119 --> 0:19:29.840 and beyond that it is completely uh mystery to me. 0:19:30.480 --> 0:19:34.480 And so I'm not sure if gravitational waves, if our 0:19:34.600 --> 0:19:38.399 our study of them, will lead to this, the bridging 0:19:38.440 --> 0:19:41.600 of gaps. But if it does, that would be great. Yeah, 0:19:41.600 --> 0:19:43.639 I mean, I I think it's easy for people to 0:19:43.720 --> 0:19:47.560 lose sight of the extent in some ways to which 0:19:47.600 --> 0:19:50.920 gravity is still mysterious to us, Like we understand gravity 0:19:51.040 --> 0:19:55.159 very well. Einstein's theories give us an extremely accurate model 0:19:55.200 --> 0:19:57.720 of gravity that we can use to predict the behavior 0:19:57.840 --> 0:20:00.520 of objects in the universe, and it were is great, 0:20:01.280 --> 0:20:05.160 So it's not like Einstein was wrong with general relativity. 0:20:05.200 --> 0:20:08.840 But yeah, there are these lingering questions like how come 0:20:08.880 --> 0:20:13.800 gravity does not reign at the quantum level? Uh, what effect, 0:20:13.840 --> 0:20:18.080 if any, does gravity have on various quantum processes? Well, 0:20:18.200 --> 0:20:21.639 I remember hearing the problem is wise gravity so relatively 0:20:21.640 --> 0:20:25.200 weak compared to the other fundamental forces of the universe, right, Yeah, 0:20:25.240 --> 0:20:28.600 the strong and weak nuclear force, that kind of thing. Yeah, 0:20:28.720 --> 0:20:31.320 that's a These are all questions that we're still looking, 0:20:32.080 --> 0:20:34.840 you know, to try and find those answers. Gravity for 0:20:34.880 --> 0:20:37.480 the longest time has been kind of the big like 0:20:38.480 --> 0:20:41.240 where do we fit this in with our other or 0:20:41.320 --> 0:20:46.600 other models, And maybe through gravitational waves and through studying them, 0:20:46.600 --> 0:20:48.720 will be able to answer some of those questions and 0:20:48.760 --> 0:20:51.400 come up with a more complete model of the universe, 0:20:51.960 --> 0:20:54.600 which means we understand reality a little bit better and 0:20:54.640 --> 0:20:58.560 that is phenomenal. Uh. One thing I would say about 0:20:58.560 --> 0:21:00.959 all this, while I I've been kind of you know, 0:21:01.280 --> 0:21:05.160 dismissing these practical application ideas, is that we can never 0:21:05.200 --> 0:21:09.520 anticipate what sort of practical applications may come of scientific discovery, 0:21:10.080 --> 0:21:14.560 and in fact, there may be some awesome practical applications 0:21:14.600 --> 0:21:18.520 that we cannot even guess at right now that in 0:21:18.600 --> 0:21:22.280 twenty years time will just be a part of everyday lives. 0:21:22.880 --> 0:21:25.840 And it's hard for us to imagine that. This is 0:21:25.840 --> 0:21:29.000 one of those times where when people make predictions about 0:21:29.000 --> 0:21:32.119 the future, they hit that stumbling block because it's something 0:21:32.160 --> 0:21:35.439 you could not possibly have anticipated unless you were you know, 0:21:35.520 --> 0:21:41.240 some brilliant madman like Einstein and you had really considered 0:21:41.280 --> 0:21:43.600 this to a point where you had reached that logical 0:21:43.640 --> 0:21:46.800 progression and said, if this is true, then we could 0:21:46.840 --> 0:21:50.760 do this. Um. But I am certainly not at that point. 0:21:51.480 --> 0:21:55.159 I'm not nearly an expert on the subject. So I 0:21:55.200 --> 0:21:57.200 think that we probably will end up seeing some practical 0:21:57.240 --> 0:22:00.879 applications as a result of this. You're saying gravity bombs, 0:22:00.880 --> 0:22:06.720 aren't you. Uh, who knows? Maybe, you know, maybe it'll 0:22:06.760 --> 0:22:08.800 be one of those things where you know, everyone will 0:22:08.840 --> 0:22:11.960 have that extra you know, that one switch in your 0:22:12.000 --> 0:22:14.879 house that doesn't seem to control anything. Maybe in the 0:22:14.920 --> 0:22:18.720 future that's just gravity, and like everything just starts floating, 0:22:18.720 --> 0:22:21.399 and like, oh, that's what that one does. You know, 0:22:21.600 --> 0:22:24.000 you flip it in the and the TV remote is 0:22:25.080 --> 0:22:29.040 width of a proton closer to your hand. Right, Well, 0:22:29.080 --> 0:22:31.639 that saves me that that much effort of getting up 0:22:31.640 --> 0:22:34.320 and picking it up, so now I can finally switch 0:22:34.359 --> 0:22:37.520 it to America's funny film videos. Alright, So that wraps 0:22:37.640 --> 0:22:43.840 up this quick discussion about the future implications of our discovery. 0:22:43.840 --> 0:22:48.200 Gravitational waves are our our actual uh you know, measurement 0:22:48.280 --> 0:22:50.960 of them, the analysis of them, what that might lead to. 0:22:51.200 --> 0:22:53.719 The best part about this the reason why it's so 0:22:53.720 --> 0:22:56.639 short is because there's so little that we can know 0:22:56.880 --> 0:22:59.960 right now. But that's the exciting part because we will 0:23:00.000 --> 0:23:03.359 will fill those gaps in in our knowledge. Like you know, 0:23:03.600 --> 0:23:06.920 ten years from now, think of all the things that 0:23:07.040 --> 0:23:09.240 we know if we were to still be doing this, 0:23:09.960 --> 0:23:12.159 which would amaze me. But here's from now. If we 0:23:12.160 --> 0:23:14.040 were still doing this, we could revisit this topic and 0:23:14.040 --> 0:23:17.440 talk about here's all the stuff we didn't anticipate when 0:23:17.440 --> 0:23:21.439 we recorded that episode back in and that's really exciting. Guys. 0:23:21.440 --> 0:23:24.040 If you have any suggestions for future episodes beforeward Thinking, 0:23:24.040 --> 0:23:28.359 whether it is about science, technology, culture, anything. Really, if 0:23:28.400 --> 0:23:31.399