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RE: General relativity 101 - Gravitational waves in a nutshell

in #steemstem6 years ago

Another interesting read @lemouth, I'm always very excited to read about gravitational waves.

To understand how gravitational waves are produced, we need to consider two massive objects orbiting around each other (although strictly speaking, this is not the only way to generate gravitational waves).

I assume that enormous amounts of energy would be needed in order to produce gravity waves. Could we create some sort of wave generator or wave amplifier given the fact that gravitational waves do exist? Could we obtain all the energy needed with the use of antimatter and some sort of thermonuclear reactor?

But then again could we make use of those large amounts of energy efficiently or would it all be wasted in the form of heat?

Have a good day!

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I assume that enormous amounts of energy would be needed in order to produce gravity waves.

No, even two humans dancing around each other would produce gravitational waves. However, one needs a lot of energy to produce potentially observable gravitational waves.

Could we obtain all the energy needed with the use of antimatter and some sort of thermonuclear reactor?

To produce observable gravitational waves, we need much more energy than that (orbiting black holes or neutron stars). Nothing that humans can produce.