If two black holes were to collide, it is theorized that the violence of the collision would send ripples through space time, called gravitational waves. I'm wondering what would happen if a ripple of this sort was to wash over Earth? Obviously it would bend time in some way, and effect gravity as well. How would we perceived these effects and how would they differ throughout the world as the wave passed through us?
I know that this is entirely theoretical, but does anyone have an answer that can be justified in any way, or at least that makes a little sense?
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[–] snacksmoto 0 points 3 points 3 points (+3|-0) ago
The Earth's dimensions will also ripple as the gravity wave passes over. One experiment to detect and measure it is LIGO.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravitational-wave_observatory
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LIGO
The basic concept is to take a laser, split the beam and send each down identically measured vacuum tunnels. The beam is then reflected back down the tunnel and, with extremely precise measurement, is measured against the other split beam. Any difference in the measurements of the split beams means that a change in gravity has affected one of the tunnels.
The problem is that the distance of the black holes colliding and the Earth are so great that the effect of the gravity wave is almost imperceptible to our current technology.
[–] incoherence [S] ago
Thanks for the info. So what exactly would the dimensions rippling look like? Would it be sort of like a massive earthquake type ripple, or more of a visual one, with less physical effect; more of just an alteration in the way we see things?
Side note - I guess there'd have to be some physical effect if gravity changed; things collapsing or floating off.