novi Posted July 16, 2009 Report Share Posted July 16, 2009 http://www.npl.washington.edu/av/altvw149.html http://faculty1.ucmerced.edu/rchiao/ If the scientists here are right, they may have just thought up a relatively compact and sensitive gravity wave detector and transmitter. Even more interestingly, it can be built with current technology at a reasonable price. I can't wait to hear whether or not this actually works. On the downside, gravity waves are limited to speed of light, like everything else in the universe. On the upside, they pass straight through everything, so you can transmit straight through the planet, and probably the sun. Also, it is very hard to eavesdrop on, since you would have to be tuned to the exact frequency it is being transmitted on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kraven Kor Posted July 16, 2009 Report Share Posted July 16, 2009 Re: Gravitational Radio possible I wonder though - shouldn't one gravitational wave / field affect and be affected by other waves / fields it crosses? If Gravity bends light, can't it bend gravity? Or have we actually figured out "what gravity is" to the extent that there are known gravitational frequencies or whatever? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sinanju Posted July 16, 2009 Report Share Posted July 16, 2009 Re: Gravitational Radio possible I wonder though - shouldn't one gravitational wave / field affect and be affected by other waves / fields it crosses? If Gravity bends light, can't it bend gravity? Or have we actually figured out "what gravity is" to the extent that there are known gravitational frequencies or whatever? If I understand the article correctly, what they mean by gravitational "frequency" would be the frequency at which the Millikan Oil Drops are vibrated. So, just like you can broadcast on any given radio frequency, you could "broadcast" on different frequencies of gravity waves. The detector would be looking for gravity waves at the selected frequency. Any information content would be in the way those regular vibrations are modulated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Mackinder Posted July 23, 2009 Report Share Posted July 23, 2009 Re: Gravitational Radio possible Could even be an answer to Fermi's Paradox - everybody else in the Galaxy uses Gravity-wave communications. "Radio? You guys still use THAT? Why?" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
novi Posted July 23, 2009 Author Report Share Posted July 23, 2009 Re: Gravitational Radio possible I wonder though - shouldn't one gravitational wave / field affect and be affected by other waves / fields it crosses? If Gravity bends light, can't it bend gravity? Or have we actually figured out "what gravity is" to the extent that there are known gravitational frequencies or whatever? While we may not completely understand what gravity is, General Relativity explains how it affects the macroscopic world very well. That it doesn't work on the microscopic scale with Quantum Theory really annoys scientists, but that's a topic for a different day. And General Relativity predicts that gravitational radiation, aka gravitational waves, are produced by all non-spherically symmetrical accelerating systems, aka, all orbiting objects in the real world. Perhaps the best explanation would be that gravitational waves are ripples in the fabric of spacetime. Imagine a pond with leaves floating on the surface and you drop a rock in it. You'll get ripples - waves on the surface of the water - and they'll travel past the leaves, shifting their positions as they go by, but otherwise leaving them as they were before the wave passed through. And while there has been no direct detection of a gravity wave, there is good indirect evidence - for the last 35 years, astronomers have been monitoring a pulsar in a close binary system whose orbit is decaying at the exact rate predicted by General Relativity for gravitational radiation. Got them the 1993 Nobel Prize. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryjrunr Posted July 24, 2009 Report Share Posted July 24, 2009 Re: Gravitational Radio possible signal to noise ration will defeat it until they can vibrate planets or maybe stars Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nyrath Posted July 24, 2009 Report Share Posted July 24, 2009 Re: Gravitational Radio possible signal to noise ration will defeat it until they can vibrate planets or maybe stars or quantum black holes. It's not the size that is important. It's the mass. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryjrunr Posted July 26, 2009 Report Share Posted July 26, 2009 Re: Gravitational Radio possible or quantum black holes. It's not the size that is important. It's the mass. true i never said otherwise going to have trouble with radiation tho especially as a black hole can radiate anything Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.