Classroom Aid - The Largest Gravitational Wave (4k)

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In this segment of the “How Fast Is It” video book, we cover Gravitational Waves. We examine just what a ‘ripple in space-time’ is. We’ll cover the wave properties and how they contract objects it encounters. We’ll examine binary star systems and the waves they create. This includes the properties of the binary encoded in the created gravitational wave including luminosity distance. We’ll use stars the size and mass of our Sun to calculate the expected amplitude and wavelength magnitudes. We’ll move from normal stars to neutron stars to stellar mass black holes. Along that progression, we’ll see their signature waveforms and build the gravitational wave sensitivity graph. We’ll cover the Hulse-Taylor pulsar (PSR B1913+16) and how it provided indirect evidence for the existence of gravitational waves. We’ll then cover direct detection with Michelson Interferometers. We’ll cover the LIGO technology and sensitivity and then examine the first detection event, and show how it fit the waveform and magnitudes for merging stellar black holes. We’ll include a look at the future of gravitational wave observatories. We’ll finish by covering the nature of gravitational waves created during the Big Bang and how they might be detected today.