The Absurdity of Detecting Gravitational Waves

  • Am Vor 6 years

    VeritasiumVeritasium
    subscribers: 14 Mio.

    A head-vaporizing laser with a perfect wavelength detecting sub-proton space-time ripples.
    Huge thanks to Prof Rana Adhikari and LIGO: ligo.org
    Here's how he felt when he learned about the first ever detection: • How Scientists Re...
    Thanks to Patreon supporters:
    Nathan Hansen, Donal Botkin, Tony Fadell, Saeed Alghamdi, Zach Mueller, Ron Neal
    Support Veritasium on Patreon: bit.ly/VePatreon
    A lot of videos have covered the general overview of the discovery of gravitational waves, what they are, the history of the search, when they were found but I wanted to delve into the absurd science that made the detection possible.
    When scientists want one megawatt of laser power, it's not just for fun (though I'm sure it's that too), it's because the fluctuations in the number of photons is proportional to their square root, making more powerful beams less noisy (as a fraction of their total). The smoothest mirrors were created not for aesthetic joy but because when you're trying to measure wiggles that are a fraction the width of a proton, a rough mirror surface simply won't do.
    Filmed by Daniel Joseph Files
    Music by Kevin MacLeod, www.incompetech.com "Black Vortex" (appropriately named)
    Music licensed from Epidemic Sound epidemicsound.com "Observations 2" (also appropriately named)

SmarterEveryDay +2006
SmarterEveryDay

I really liked this man. Is it really just a Michelson Interferometer on a really incredible scale? Excellent job on this video. Prof Adhikari did a FANTASTIC job as well.

Vor 6 years
Trevor Ginn +88
Trevor Ginn

Thanks to YouTubers like you and Derek, the scientists doing this kind of incredible work are able to be showcased. I think a lot of personality is cut out (more often than not) when specialists like Rana Adhikari are interviewed by cable media or documentary creators. Showing him in a casual light shows the audience that anyone can be contributing to science if they work towards it hard enough. These kind of honest interviews bring a real human element to the world of science and I'm thankful the world has people like you, Derek, and Rana. Keep being awesome! :)

Vor 6 years
Chaim Goldbaum +25
Chaim Goldbaum

I like how you said it's just a Michelson interferometer

Vor 5 years
The Sunflow Channel +1
The Sunflow Channel

SmarterEveryDay found you!

Vor 5 years
dontomaso11 +2
dontomaso11

i dont like him

Vor 4 years
Chris Eveley +977
Chris Eveley

Kudos for getting a "I wish more people would ask that question" from a leading scientist in his field. That must be the best compliment ever for a layman (sorry I don't know your physics credentials lol)

Vor 2 years
Chuck Maddox +113
Chuck Maddox

He has a PhD

Vor year
Milark +17
Milark

@Alex Bartley millions of people have a profile picture with them and their partner. It’s a normal thing. And it can be considered advertising your sexual preference.

Vor year
Chris +51
Chris

This Comment section wack

Vor year
Resolve +12
Resolve

@Chris fr

Vor year
carso1500 +1893
carso1500

I just love how adhikari face completly iluminated once he mentioned the size of the light wave, it was like he was expecting some idiot that would not really understand what he was talking about (like he has probably have to deal with before) and was just extatic to find someone that also talks his tongue

Vor 2 years
ymbhiojtukburtbuyt +72
ymbhiojtukburtbuyt

I'd wager you're reading too much into it.

Vor 2 years
Vedang Ratnaparkhi +47
Vedang Ratnaparkhi

Good thing Derek is a PHD in physics

Vor 2 years
SlickStretch +124
SlickStretch

I know that feeling. When I suddenly realize that the person I'm talking to understands and has some knowledge of their own on the subject, it's super exciting. Especially when you're used to explaining a thing every. single. time.

Vor year
Leisure-B +3
Leisure-B

I was going to make the same comment :)

Vor year
SlickStretch +756
SlickStretch

When being hit by that laser, you cease being biology and become physics.

Vor year
I Love Pineapple🍍 +26
I Love Pineapple🍍

Damn that hits hardddd

Vor year
untergehermuc +36
untergehermuc

And in the end philosophy.

Vor year
Seth +18
Seth

@untergehermuc You need a much bigger LASER for that transition

Vor year
Micah Hunter +8
Micah Hunter

all biology is is physics

Vor year
SlickStretch +11
SlickStretch

@Micah Hunter Well yeah, technically everything is physics.

Vor year
Victoria Eads +75
Victoria Eads

Prof. Rana Adhikari is SUPER AWESOME! He's obviously an expert in this field, and he's eminently capable of explaining his passion in a way that others who don't have his knowledge can more easily understand. That's a rare talent. Sir, I hope you teach undergraduates, because you are the sort who can REACH undergraduates and enthuse them about science and physics.

Vor 2 years
Sploof Mcsterra +85
Sploof Mcsterra

The challenge of removing the interference was crazy. The clouds themselves had a gravitational effect. And the silica threads would resonate, causing unique spikes in the readings. Wild stuff.

Vor year
Be Smart +1937
Be Smart

A megawatt *continuous* laser? That's a helluva beam. I toured the Petawatt laser in Austin but that thing only fires for like a trillionth of a second

Vor 6 years
John Arbuckle +35
John Arbuckle

It's Okay To Be Smart I love your channel

Vor 6 years
wiwh +27
wiwh

I thought he said light was discrete, duh.

Vor 6 years
ABaumstumpf +69
ABaumstumpf

I want one of those - gonna troll my cat with a 1 megawatt :D

Vor 6 years
2veritasium +101
2veritasium

It's Okay To Be Smart the power of the laser itself is much lower but they resonate it in a cavity to build up to 1MW

Vor 6 years
Publicly Shamed +486
Publicly Shamed

I’m always the smartest person in the room when I’m watching Veritasium alone.

Vor 2 years
Florea Ciprian +30
Florea Ciprian

Sometimes i feel like the dumbest person in the room when im watching Veritasium alone

Vor year
Hopefnn +9
Hopefnn

@Florea Ciprian Schrödingers Intelligence 😆

Vor 3 Monate
CdFMaster +1
CdFMaster

​​@Florea Ciprian Quantum superposition says you can be both as long as there's no observator in the room

Vor Monat
child cannibalism
child cannibalism

​@Florea Ciprian It's a 50/50 either I feel extremely dumb or very smort

Vor 17 Tage
77gravity +617
77gravity

Stuff like this makes "rocket science" look extremely simple.

Vor 2 years
James Ambrocio +41
James Ambrocio

@Charlie Bingaman exactly. A huge chunk of the technology we use in our daily lives were accidentally discovered/invented because of these 'useless' projects, as they say.

Vor year
Yuri Tardid +44
Yuri Tardid

@Charlie Bingaman Better than spending billions on war

Vor year
Maxwell's equation +13
Maxwell's equation

Rocket science IS simple. Its like basic Physics. Anyone with a very basic knowledge of calculus can understand most of it. NASA is kinda lame.

Vor year
Tal Lin +154
Tal Lin

This interview made me think how the science of physics is basically matter trying to understand itself.

Vor year
Vidyasagar Daud +4
Vidyasagar Daud

*Biologically Organised Matter

Vor year
shrooman +5
shrooman

bro, science in general is just matter trying to understand matter

Vor year
Tal Lin +1
Tal Lin

@shrooman That's the case mostly when discussing natural science rather than, let's say, formal science. And in natural science I'd say all branches are ultimately sourced within physics.

Vor year
The Luminous One
The Luminous One

Consciousness.

Vor Monat
Mormodes +156
Mormodes

I really wish this channel was around when I was younger. The way information is presented in your videos makes it much easier to conceptualize and understand. Back in High School we were sat in front of a book and told to read it. We didn't care, we had a million other things to think about besides reading a bland book. I can only hope the kids watching these kinds of videos today can see the wonder in what's happening. LIGO is an incredible feat, and I'd heard the name before, but never understood what it really was doing. Thank you!

Vor 2 years
noneedforaname +4
noneedforaname

Fully agree!

Vor year
Amazing Greats +36
Amazing Greats

So basically… gravity waves make space-time wiggle a bit and make giant lasers get darker slower when the gravity wave passes over the laser. Did I get that right? And you need to use one very low wavelength of light so that you can even detect the wiggle because on a higher wavelength, the light won’t interfere enough for it to be detected. Gosh, I feel like I’m operating on the edge of my IQ here hahaha

Vor year
jan Mamu
jan Mamu

opposite wavelengths destroy each other, so when one of the lightwaves stretch they get more or less different, so more or less light survives so they can detect the difference by detecting the brightness of the resulting combined laser stream… probably

Vor 4 Monate
vic Lincoln +7602
vic Lincoln

I love scientists who don't care to iron their shirts even for an interview .

Vor 3 years
carso1500 +877
carso1500

For the way he speaked initially it appeared like he wasnt really all that thrilled by the interview, it's posible that this isnt his first interview and most people can barely understand what he is talking about so why even matter, his question about the infrared light wave lenght being bigger than the distortion caused by the gravitational wave surprised him for the best, you can see how lively he suddenly become

Vor 2 years
King K +91
King K

He is not in the demanding position so why bother .

Vor 2 years
The Overseer +156
The Overseer

Or those that wear whatever suits them. They’re the real scientists

Vor 2 years
BIGSHERK +123
BIGSHERK

@Bhavik Shah I just thought that. Lololol dude my dad is a brown Asian and I was gonna say this. My dad is a giant Filipino and never irons anything lol

Vor 2 years
Ken Albertsen +10
Ken Albertsen

I've watched this entire video 3 times, at month's intervals, .... and it still amazes me. Thanks to everyone involved. It's sooooo cool.

Vor 9 Monate
Ali S. +134
Ali S.

The guy explained the most advanced technology i have ever seen in 5 minutes using baby language. I feel like i am a scientist!

Vor 2 years
Max Foster +1
Max Foster

I've always been a fan of the content you and others like you (smartereveryday, vsauce, ect.) make, but recently I've been on a binge of your content. Please never stop helping us learn new things about our world!

Vor Monat
R Gamer +95
R Gamer

I love when Professors, Teachers, Scientists, Experts look like they're at the Beach Party enjoying, but they're knowledgeable as hell.

Vor 2 years
teppec +9
teppec

I always like coming back to some of your older content and looking at it with eyes that have now seen some of the fruits of this research. Would be interesting to do a follow-up on LISA and see some in depth information on how they are looking at transitioning this project to space to be able to detect even more gravitational waves.

Vor year
PerrythePlatypus +4785
PerrythePlatypus

“A megawatt will vaporize your head instantly” Good thing they have a first aid kit.

Vor 2 years
VikingMan44 +91
VikingMan44

I don't think betadine and a bandaid is going to help...

Vor 2 years
Majapahit Sumatra +59
Majapahit Sumatra

I couldn't resist laughing man, you killed it

Vor 2 years
yingxia wei +16
yingxia wei

Red sus

Vor 2 years
spiralx6 +13
spiralx6

Theres a wonderful (read, eye-popping) CGI effect in the first series of The Expanse, where a man's head is 'disappeared' instantly in space by a hi=speed traveling chunk of debris. I was reminded of that when he described this.

Vor 2 years
LaZer Troll +21
LaZer Troll

Meh... I'll be impressed once they start using 1.21 gigawatts ...

Vor 2 years
ONIKABI +103
ONIKABI

The guy running that place knows so much about what hes doing its amazing. He found the perfect job (for him).

Vor 2 years
Rapiano Penaldo +11
Rapiano Penaldo

Well he has a phD from MIT....need anything more to say?

Vor year
grealish +2
grealish

@Rapiano Penaldo haha your Name

Vor year
George Revell +6
George Revell

The human race has had a lot of fails, but the huge effort and cost we put into our pure science ventures like this one, now that I'm really proud of.

Vor 7 Monate
LITMUS AERO +41
LITMUS AERO

I love that guy, he’s so smart but so funny and relatable. I wish more people could be like him and our father derick

Vor year
Shriyansh Pandey
Shriyansh Pandey

These people give us hope

Vor year
Astrobua +4
Astrobua

I watched this five times now. In my opinion, it is one of Veritasium's best. Thanks, Derek!

Vor year
Josephine Tusveld
Josephine Tusveld

Your intelligible visulations/representations on challenging inconsistensies in the science of contemporary physics, like this one, are SO inspiring to me! Thank you so much!! 😍

Vor year
Veritasium +899
Veritasium

Prof Rana Adhikari is clearly a star. Here's how he felt when he learned of G-wave detection: https://youtu.be/ViMnGgn87dg Those glasses provide laser protection - the laser in that lab won't vaporize your head but it could burn your retinas.

Vor 6 years
Adam Green
Adam Green

Kissy kissy.

Vor 6 years
Subhankar Ghosal +3
Subhankar Ghosal

Veritasium Name should be pronounced as Rana Odhikari ( 'A' is pronounced in Bengali as 'O')

Vor 6 years
Luis Calderari +1
Luis Calderari

+Veritasium Next step will be using two slits for studying the diffraction of gravitational waves!!!

Vor 6 years
Veritasium +41
Veritasium

I believe the upgrade to 1MW they're implementing right now. The 1064 nm lasers have excellent stability, low noise and they are not huge - this makes them ideal for this purpose. BTW older g-wave interferometers used green lasers (that's why Rana's glasses were green).

Vor 6 years
Qelow +1
Qelow

Veritasium Hey why are you guys wearing the glasses in there? Some protection?

Vor 6 years
I care +3
I care

It's bold to try to explain such a complex system and the mechanism behind it, but I have to admit he did a surprisingly good job

Vor 2 years
thedanyes +2
thedanyes

Out of all the Veritasium videos I've watched, this is my favorite. Dr. Adhikari's responses were both educational and entertaining.

Vor 2 years
Joe Smith +1
Joe Smith

Rana Adhikari is an excellent communicator. It is remarkable this achievement was completed and the results accepted by the scientific community.

Vor 9 Monate
Edward Razzano
Edward Razzano

An excellent conceptual video which appeals to a layman such as myself. A great job of justifying the vast momentum of resources into a verification of a hundred years worth of theory to make sure that we are going in the right direction. Forza to you all!

Vor 2 years
NY5
NY5

Can an event be triangulated between the 2 LIGO installations or would that require more accurate measurement? The 2 installations are so close together compared to the event, is this just for knowing when something has happened and we should look around, or can it be used to give us a range of directions that the event could have occurred in so we can narrow down where to look?

Vor year
erikig +6788
erikig

Rana Adhikari looks like the scientist you have to drag out of the bar to save the world at the end of a sci-fi movie when the pencil necked number crunchers have failed

Vor 6 years
Luis Sierra +172
Luis Sierra

stop watching movies, they are making you dumb

Vor 5 years
Commandelicious +280
Commandelicious

Going "wubwubwubwubbrrrrrrr LETS DO THIS!" and fires the gigawatt laser at some atoms

Vor 5 years
Vipero +120
Vipero

Thats oddly specific

Vor 5 years
nosuchthing8 +83
nosuchthing8

I haven't laughed so hard in a long time. An awesome comment!

Vor 5 years
it's 6884 +9
it's 6884

or to save the other bar customers from slipping so hard on the floor after all the chicks went Niagara

Vor 5 years
Jon Watkins +5
Jon Watkins

Amazing Video on many levels! How do they dissipate the 1mw of laser energy? Do they recycle it to run a generator or heat water? Can the energy be used to partially run itself?

Vor 2 years
derpnerpwerp +7
derpnerpwerp

I'm really glad you did this video.. I was reading about this the other day and I had the exact same question about environmental noise.. I asked on reddit and I kinda got snobby answers.. thanks!

Vor year
TheTuubster +31
TheTuubster

So, if I understood it right: While the light being inside the space when it is stretched is stretched too, new light that is entering the stretched space is actually travelling the difference in distance due to the stretching.

Vor year
AMAN GUPTA
AMAN GUPTA

Yes, because the gravitational waves haven't yet stretched the new light. At least, that's what I understood.

Vor year
Vidyasagar Daud +1
Vidyasagar Daud

I don't know what you understood but it is different from what i understood which makes me feel im understanding the wrong thing.

Vor year
laestrella
laestrella

I understood that they were making the tube 'boggier' to get through... (!) and not much else... As in.. I'm not sure how that then helps them with their comparison..

Vor year
José Pedro Galeano Gómez
José Pedro Galeano Gómez

Yeah, and they measure the difference in time it took the new light to travel the stretche space in reference to the time it should have taken, since the wavelenght is fixed. But i feel like i dont understand it well enough.

Vor year
N Marbletoe
N Marbletoe

yes, the key being that the gravitational wavelength is VERY long, so while it passes the light goes back and forth in the detector many times.

Vor year
Variable +4
Variable

What they had to do just to set up these devices is absolutely insane

Vor 2 years
v2talk v2talk +1
v2talk v2talk

Light photons also carry momentum and I would guess a large one with a megawatt of power. So I guess they also need to account for the mirror getting hit and disturbed from its position (as it is not rigidly held but hanging in silicon threads), with each set of light pulses hitting in succession

Vor year
Aries The Ram +3826
Aries The Ram

Scientists : "We are able to detect gravitational waves from the collision of two black holes 1.3 billion light years away" Also scientists : "For the last time, the Earth is round"

Vor 4 years
ogi22 +52
ogi22

ROTFL, that was a good one :D

Vor 4 years
sarthak shakya +96
sarthak shakya

also some people : earth is flat

Vor 4 years
Kouga +151
Kouga

Some people are born smart, some people are born stupid. And some of them just don't care what the truth is, but prefer to spout whatever comes to their minds instead. :) There's a person for anything.

Vor 3 years
Mara Eliza +13
Mara Eliza

and we don't are smarter people if we just believe in them not knowing the why that earth be round

Vor 3 years
Richi Arditya +19
Richi Arditya

Sphere not round

Vor 3 years
Radek Svoboda +1
Radek Svoboda

I am missing a question regarding time component of the wave. If we are in spacetime, it should also affect time. Also a statistical analysis would be interesting, how many times a detector fires, and how many times of that they both fire.

Vor 2 years
Aaron and Anne Logan
Aaron and Anne Logan

The amount of precision involved here makes JWST look like child's play. Absolutely amazing.

Vor year
The Exodeus
The Exodeus

Very much agree with your sentiment at 8:11, absolutely fantastic that we’re peeling back reality beyond what should even be possible it’s crazy.

Vor year
Caty +3
Caty

This guy is genuinely happy that finally someone is asking an intelligent question. You can tell he's used to the regular media and their stupid questions

Vor year
L D +5
L D

My mind is blown ! I would love to know how they compensated for everything and how things were toleranced

Vor 2 years
Peter Best +750
Peter Best

A professor who can explain the highly complex to the every day person like me is a treasure.

Vor 2 years
Aoaoa +1
Aoaoa

Oh you are a professor!?

Vor year
Little Doughnuts +2
Little Doughnuts

He means veritasium is a professor

Vor year
Systenize +4
Systenize

The professor: 1:06

Vor year
Michael Macdonald
Michael Macdonald

The measure of your understanding is your ability to explain it to others

Vor year
Ryan Watkins
Ryan Watkins

I was just thinking about the Veritasium audience and our demographics. I wonder at what level does he tell his interviews to explain concepts and what level most of the viewership is comprised? I ain't no professor myself or nothing, but I pick up because I am able to understand the concept at a fundamental level. I had professors, actual professors, that failed to explain much less complex questions as well as these videos do. This channel is so great.

Vor year
Ranjan bauri +2
Ranjan bauri

Hi there, in a video posted by you,there was an awesome explanation of the gravity being kind of illusion and not acting as force in inertial frame of reference,and exists due to the normal force, in this video gravitational wave detection is shown, could you please clarify the scenario,sounds quiet interesting..

Vor 2 years
Cohoangler Vancouver, WA
Cohoangler Vancouver, WA

The most impressive part of this project was that they were looking for something they didn’t know existed; but they found it. Einstein predicted the existence of gravitational waves but nobody really knew if they were real. Now they know.

Vor year
Ty Rosales +2
Ty Rosales

At first, I thought the shirt was the gravity wave detector... All jokes aside, I really do hope we learn more about how gravity works because anti-gravity products would probably change our species forever and hopefully for the better.

Vor year
Some Guy +4
Some Guy

Now imagine how the effects would have seemed if you were up close when the black holes merged.

Vor 2 years
Kenny Alternative
Kenny Alternative

Mind expanding info. I did not understand this measuring of gravitational waves till now. Thanks for making it simple enough for me to understand.

Vor year
OuterRem +528
OuterRem

Rana Adhikari is the prof whose classes you tried your hardest to register for, only to realize that it was already waitlisted at 2.7 femtoseconds. I'd kill to have this guy as a lecturer.

Vor 4 years
Sukacita Yeremia +11
Sukacita Yeremia

Lol, did a pack of bacteria waitlisted him?

Vor 3 years
Mark Nasia +5
Mark Nasia

OuterRem that is who designed that project, easy A scientists that went on to secure govt grants

Vor 3 years
Derek Boyt +2
Derek Boyt

And that is why he doesn’t lecture.

Vor 3 years
karthick murali +4
karthick murali

Did you just said you would kill someone? I am calling the cops

Vor 3 years
Tucsonan Dude
Tucsonan Dude

Meh.

Vor 2 years
Pixxel Wizzard
Pixxel Wizzard

This guy was very charismatic and fun to listen to. I enjoyed seeing these guys interact. Fascinating video, too! Thank you.

Vor 2 years
Harishankar Pattanath +9
Harishankar Pattanath

Imagine watching a light getting darker/lighter(idk what happened.) and deducing that two black holes collided 1.3 billion years away. Now that's awesome.

Vor year
Hecking Bamboozled
Hecking Bamboozled

"I don't understand the methodology, therefore the science is incorrect"

Vor year
Harishankar Pattanath +3
Harishankar Pattanath

@Hecking Bamboozled Lol i didnt mean it was incorrect i was just saying thats pretty awesome

Vor year
GirlsInRedTrenchCoat
GirlsInRedTrenchCoat

"...the next logical step is to go from two signals to detecting all the black holes in the universe all of the time" I love that statement so much

Vor year
Chris Stuart
Chris Stuart

I can't believe that they can actually can measure these waves. So small and yet we can still do it. It blows my mind!

Vor year
Berry Bunny +1
Berry Bunny

When converting the gravity waves from merging black holes to audio waves, the massively destructive event sounds like an adorable little water drop.

Vor year
EggyRepublic +3322
EggyRepublic

5:17 so not only are football fields a unit of length in America, footballs is also a unit of volume.

Vor 2 years
Chromiyum +190
Chromiyum

THIS IS AMERICA

Vor 2 years
Prototheria +286
Prototheria

@Chromiyum If it was really America, he would have used cubic hamburgers.

Vor 2 years
I did surgery on grandma DDD’s face +111
I did surgery on grandma DDD’s face

Unacceptable, only olympic swimmingpools is approved as an american unit of volume. Still better than british, the last few years BBC insisted on using dinosaurs as a unit for everything, and just like other british products it doesnt work.

Vor 2 years
Prototheria +83
Prototheria

@I did surgery on grandma DDD’s face I'm sorry, but that is absolute nonsense. The British have long used unladen swallows to perform various distance/time equations and not, my good Sir, dinosaurs as you so inaccurately implied. Now then. Good DAY!

Vor 2 years
MrDino1953 +21
MrDino1953

EggyRepublic - I’m surprised he didn’t use the Australian unit of volume which is Sydney Harbours of water, given his Australian roots.

Vor 2 years
Oz El
Oz El

@veritasium what would have happened if earth was only a few AU (astronomical unit) away from merging black holes? Being that close to such a big gravitational wave, how would that effect us?

Vor 2 years
gammarayburst +3
gammarayburst

5:23 thank you @Veritasium for answering the question I came here for. And I love how Prof Rana Adhikari was tickled at you being the first journalist to ask interesting questions. The way you introduced him was so crazy and funny! Now I have another question, were you guys wearing sunnies to protect your eyes from possible laser leakage?

Vor year
Genshin's Bizzare Adventures
Genshin's Bizzare Adventures

To look cool 😆 😎

Vor 2 Monate
Jerome Barry
Jerome Barry

The reason the arms are perpendicular is that the detected wave is coming at us from a distant point source. The stretching of space-time in one arm is a different magnitude of the stretching in the other arm. The difference in the amplitude of the two light beams is the detection. It is also necessary that the 2 light beams have a single source, split down the two tubes, and observed as they return.

Vor year
John Slaven +4
John Slaven

How can you know the source of the gravitational wave? Even gravity at two different points on earth can be very slightly different so how can they be sure its not a gravitational affect from earths gravity affecting the instruments? Very cool subject!

Vor year
Tristan Deniet +2
Tristan Deniet

So in the audio world, you can take two signals, reverse the phase of one, isolate the noise by adding them together and then subtract the noise from one of the signals to get a clean signal. Is that basically what they're doing with the two stations? Cuz thats really cool.

Vor 2 years
Alexey Polevoy
Alexey Polevoy

Yes. And if there is a slightest phase shift, they gonna immediately notice that.

Vor year
Adam Gillespie +78
Adam Gillespie

Imagine testing your lasers and then one of them bends weirdly and it turns out that they were affected by two colliding blackholes from over a billion years ago

Vor 3 years
Aayush Dhungana +6
Aayush Dhungana

imagined

Vor year
Vinayak Navada +594
Vinayak Navada

That professor is like "I don't need to iron my shirt , I need answers "😅

Vor 2 years
Viraj Kharat +3
Viraj Kharat

I need to give answers 😂😂

Vor year
James +3
James

This must mean I am a scientist too

Vor year
Matt Smith +1
Matt Smith

I'm really glad I found this video because I first learned about LIGO in the episode on Black holes from the show Strip the Cosmos. And I had so many questions. So I'm loving this video fir asking those questions

Vor year
Andrew Walker +1
Andrew Walker

As usual fantastically interesting and very intelligent interview🙏🏼❗️

Vor 2 Monate
chucktangy
chucktangy

I thoroughly enjoyed this interview with Rana. He was funny, interesting, and determined in a very loose way. But I was wondering who do you go to to order up the smoothest mirror ever created? And what the hell did they say when you go "I want a smooth mirror, but not that normal garbage you make. I need it to be the smoothest mirror ever."

Vor 2 years
FafliX +2
FafliX

To me it's even more impressive that we even knew to look for them.

Vor year
Nisarg Joshi +1221
Nisarg Joshi

Humans are amazing. We are able to detect changes to our very frame of reference *from within that frame of reference.*

Vor 4 years
Erwin Moller +99
Erwin Moller

That is the surprising part indeed! Good thing the interviewer asked explicitely how that works, and after a lame joke he clearly explained, well kind of clearly.

Vor 4 years
Nisarg Joshi +33
Nisarg Joshi

@Erwin Moller Hahaha that's so accurate! I also could understand the theory, somewhat, but the practicality is still unclear to me. Basically, I'm not enough acquainted with the field.

Vor 4 years
John Terpack +106
John Terpack

I can't wait til they can measure the pixels on the screen of the simulation we're part of.

Vor 4 years
Philipe Santos +15
Philipe Santos

@Nisarg Joshi thing is, there aint much to understand.. an interaction so strong that had too much energy dispensed.. being it noticeable over our planet system noise. This energy flow wended up stretching spacetime in the direction it came from. simply then we measure two 90 degrees angle lengths using lasers. (called interferometer). which is able to pick on quantum distances being bended in reference to another (if one length is streched more than the other it will take the light from the laser a tiny bit more time causing it to when it comes back to interfere with the other light causing positive and negative patterns of interference seen as the final laser (getting brighter and darker) with different levels of intensity over time), which happened that we were able to measure with clarity. .

Vor 4 years
Dub Hub +2
Dub Hub

@John Terpack indeed haha that would be nice and along with that i would also like to know how the universe goes into edit mode by the creator of our simulation

Vor 4 years
Y Dong
Y Dong

Really like your video! Very interesting and trigger people to think. This is the essence of the scientific tutorial and

Vor year
MINNIE CLINTON
MINNIE CLINTON

Wow! Very nice presentation. And not only all explanations but also the lots of pictures. Thank you!!

Vor 2 years
Straight drive +2
Straight drive

level of expertise is known in how simple someone can explain a complex topic in their domain.

Vor 5 Monate
Euna Isabel +79
Euna Isabel

When you are a PhD student watching this amazing absurdly incredible accomplishment, and realizing that your simpler, and ultimately more useless research, has dumbass problems you have no idea how to solve.

Vor 2 years
Jib The Programmer +8
Jib The Programmer

Your not working in a dedicated team of probably 10-30+ PhD students, professors and researchers. Plus tons of experience and money

Vor year
Writer Shard +12
Writer Shard

You're comparing yourself to a person in a much bigger and more advantageous position. I hope you weren't discouraged by this. Keep at it! You're doing good by recognizing your inexperience, but be sure to learn and improve.

Vor year
Vespyr +2
Vespyr

Being able to recognize this is fundamental in showing you're on the right track.

Vor year
CDMC RST +5
CDMC RST

I wouldn't feel discouraged. They have gone through the same processes and feelings in their research. We're just seeing the presentation of their progress. If you saw "The Martian" it's like what Mark says at the end, "You just begin. You do the math. You solve one problem and you solve the next one, and then the next. And If you solve enough problems, you get to come home." But in this case it's "You get to make massive contributions to [your field of research]." They're just building off all the little problems they've already solved; and everyone has to start somewhere. Good luck!

Vor year
Rick from Bohemia
Rick from Bohemia

I hope you don't copy like you do with comments.

Vor year
Longshot
Longshot

The numbers in this episode are beyond mind boggling.

Vor year
Mr. Numi Who +1
Mr. Numi Who

The clip of the two merging black holes in the beginning should have had them rotating around one another a LOT faster in the end (like thousands of times per second). Not that we can 'see' that, but it has been translated to sound, so it has been 'heard'... a gradually increasing whining pitch (due to the gravity waves) until... nothing (explosion). So you could actually add the audio to the video clip...

Vor 2 years
Martin Bettler
Martin Bettler

I think, because of Prof. Rana Adhikari, this is my absolute Veritasium favorite.

Vor 2 years
CokeAndMeth +1
CokeAndMeth

They should have built the two systems at an angle relative to each other so they could computationally verify that the stretch of length of an arm is also transformed in each system to the same ratio as the ratio of the difference of their position with relation to each other postulates.

Vor year
Gavin d R
Gavin d R

Mindblowing that one guy refers to kilometers and the other inches..... Metric and imperial combined in the most precise measuring instrument ever created!

Vor 2 years
Rufeeen
Rufeeen

What if the gravitational wave hits both the arms at the same time? There isn't a guarantee to have it hit one arm first and being parallel to the other or is it? If that would have happened would there be at least some kind of signal?

Vor year
Lee rowe +133
Lee rowe

The more science Professors I see the more I realize they are the BEST HUMANS AROUND

Vor 3 years
warship satin +2
warship satin

not really

Vor 2 years
김다희 +3
김다희

1:25 The Alpha Centauri vs human hair comparison is killing me.

Vor 2 years
Jay
Jay

Its nice what people do to go further to understand our world.

Vor 2 years
Small and Stressed +2
Small and Stressed

Imagine if these detectors were on the moon. You could cover a larger distance with little disturbance.

Vor 2 years
Linas Vepstas
Linas Vepstas

moon is too dusty. But they are talking about doing it between satellites, in space.

Vor 2 years
Wanderer Mishra
Wanderer Mishra

I think it may not work for now as we must consider the direction of waves coming to us like perpendicular or parallel or other angle it will affect the shift. So keeping two arms perpendicular to each other may not help. Love your videos.

Vor year
Mach ninety
Mach ninety

What’s funny is the first detection was two black holes colliding. He didn’t mention the second detection when a neutron star collided with a black hole.

Vor 2 years
Staymare
Staymare

The laser safety goggles are hilarious when it's a laser that turns air into plasma.

Vor year
Holo Sim +61
Holo Sim

Thank you, Professor Adhikari, for finally answering this question that has been bugging me since high school. "What does a gravitational wave sound like?" It's now the ring-tone on my work cell. (6:12)

Vor 4 years
Carazy123 +6
Carazy123

1:07

Vor 4 years
OJB42 +2
OJB42

This is one of humanity's greatest achievements. The numbers are incredible. It's almost impossible to believe that it actually worked!

Vor year
Thomas Kundera
Thomas Kundera

First attempts where in the 1950's. Tooks decades of hard work.

Vor year
ethervagabond +2
ethervagabond

"Now here's something most people don't think about, which is that gravitational waves stretch space-time." That's an understatement if I ever heard one. Most people don't even think about gravitational waves OR space-time at all.

Vor 2 years
Archangel Metatron
Archangel Metatron

Gravity is variable depending on your distance from the mass which has a gravitational pull.

Vor year
Mixup 221
Mixup 221

Yeah when I heard all the effort and tech they used to detect these waves my mind was blown

Vor 2 years
David Devaney, Jr.
David Devaney, Jr.

While I know Back to the Future is fiction, I do find it interesting that this system of measurement does look like a Flux Capacitor. Maybe it's just me but to measure this sort of thing kind of lines up with that.

Vor year
Jeffery Nelson +162
Jeffery Nelson

I'm a blue collar type. There must have been extremely skilled construction workers involved in building this. Glad this is happening in my lifetime.

Vor 4 years
Amateur Gamer +25
Amateur Gamer

Usually these are assembled by engineers. The construction workers may have been involved in building the actual stretch of building with wiring. The actual pipe that has all the ingenuity requires precise measurements only engineers can build

Vor 4 years
Lexender +13
Lexender

Like spacecraft (space ships, drones, etc) theres engineers who specialice in working with these massive structures that despite being kilometers Long have to be made with nanometric precision

Vor 3 years
Videot99 +1
Videot99

Dr Deuteron One thing that has me scratching my head a bit is that at 2.5 miles long the curvature of the earth will cause a drop of something over 40 inches. How do they get the laser beam to bend around that? Or is the tube elevated as it goes?

Vor 3 years
Semper Fipar +1
Semper Fipar

@Videot99 It should have you scratching your head because it is theory(blackholes) piled on top of theory(two blackholes) piled on top of theory(two blackholes colliding) and this place is measuring the theory. What he has really created is a scientific BS meter.

Vor 3 years
DanteDarcangelo +4
DanteDarcangelo

@Semper Fipar You might want to go and check the difference between a hypothesis and a theory and stop embarrassing yourself.

Vor 3 years
Carrick Richards
Carrick Richards

An intriguing glimpse into new possibilities and old ones. Thank you

Vor 10 Monate
Stephen King +1
Stephen King

Rana Adhikari is my new favorite professor. He needs his own show.

Vor 2 years
William Burroughs +2
William Burroughs

Seems like the next step would be to place one of those detectors in space. Preferably suspended on the dark side of the moon. This would greatly reduce interference from Earth both locally and globally.

Vor year
Thomas Kundera +2
Thomas Kundera

There are projects to put them in orbit. But that will take decades. Expensive, lots of R&D, ...

Vor year
Luis Lopez +1
Luis Lopez

I have lived a few blocks away from that Caltech building for years and this is first time I get to see what's inside of it.

Vor 2 Monate
IceIceJay +1
IceIceJay

I remember when that experiment gravity wave experiment occured and my high school physics teacher came in excited the next day and said "class we are going to spend the next two weeks talking about gravity and relativity" best memories from highschool

Vor 9 Monate
M N +135
M N

The host asks great questions and the professor answers very well.

Vor 5 years
Pan Imbryk +15
Pan Imbryk

dontomaso11 are you kidding?

Vor 4 years
🌟 Wander the Nomad +5
🌟 Wander the
Nomad

@Pan Imbryk I don't know if he's joking, but I think it's safe to say you don't need to take them seriously.

Vor 4 years
Sterlin Charles
Sterlin Charles

Marc, I agree with you. Very well explained. Lol especially if I could somewhat understand it.

Vor 4 years
Wing Wang +1
Wing Wang

I agree with Marc as well, I might be a little racist. Lol

Vor 4 years
Antonio Maglione
Antonio Maglione

Truly great explanation, Thanks!

Vor 2 years
Matt Snider
Matt Snider

Dr. Adhikari is great, lots of humor with the science.

Vor 6 Monate
Joe Smith +1
Joe Smith

I think something very important to acknowledge during explanation is that these gravitational waves are tiny *at this distance from the source*. They were not tiny near the source. They were huge at the source.

Vor 9 Monate
Omer Nezih Gerek
Omer Nezih Gerek

Wait.. Wouldn’t it take infinitely long (from our observation perspective) to have a motion near the event horizon of a black hole? How come they moved so fast “even from our perspective” although time dilates indefinitely near the event horizon?

Vor year

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