Brace yourselves for gravitational waves

[Brian37]

They track the movement of a poll stuck in the ground, or the difference between two polls. The polls don't move the land moves the polls.

I'm guessing the equipment used to detect the gravity waves are operating with simply really deeper math.

[Brian37]

I am guessing. The fabric of space time wouldn't seem to me different than the motion of a water buoy in the ocean bobbing up and down left and right because of waves.

[Joods]

This has me totally confused.

But then again, what else is new? I believe I live in a constant state of confusion.

[Alex K]

I am guessing. The fabric of space time wouldn't seem to me different than the motion of a water buoy in the ocean bobbing up and down left and right because of waves.

Meaduring lengths in relativity is a subtle thing because there is so much freedom to choose coordinates. The simplest way to understand it is that you have two freely floating test masses at a distance which get hit by a gravity wave. The wave changes the distance measure between the masses just as cosmic expansion increased the distance between galaxies.

[Aractus]

Brian, Alex, this thread is about gravitational waves, not gravity waves.

[Excited Penguin]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Tstyqz2g7o

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gw-i_VKd6Wo

[Brian37]

I am guessing. The fabric of space time wouldn't seem to me different than the motion of a water buoy in the ocean bobbing up and down left and right because of waves.

Meaduring lengths in relativity is a subtle thing because there is so much freedom to choose coordinates. The simplest way to understand it is that you have two freely floating test masses at a distance which get hit by a gravity wave. The wave changes the distance measure between the masses just as cosmic expansion increased the distance between galaxies.

What am I not getting right here? The math certainly is deeply complex, I'm trying to dumb it down with a visual for morons like me. 

It is comparing the difference between a position or positions? Where one or multiple points start out and where they end up when the wave moves them?

[Excited Penguin]

Brian, I think all you have to understand is how the interference pattern works, which is what I want to understand as well. This basic experiment with the laser beam I never understood even in highschool, not that I was trying, physics didn't interest me that much back then.

[Brian37]

Brian, I think all you have to understand is how the interference pattern works, which is what I want to understand as well. This basic experiment with the laser beam I never understood even in highschool, not that I was trying, physics didn't interest me that much back then.

I know it stems from the simple idea of measuring. The how is what I am trying to get my brain around. If you call something a wave, my brain thinks about it like throwing a rock in the water and the ripples extending outwards. So you have something to detect that wave. The machine used to detect that motion, the setup is what I am asking about.

[Excited Penguin]

Yes, I know. What's what I was talking about. The machine and how it operates. I think we need to wrap our heads around how that beam shows us whether a gravitation wave affected it and to what extent. But hey, I'm no expert.