StarTalk Radio Deciphering Gravitational Waves, with Janna Levin
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Dec 20, 2024 Janna Levin chats with Rainer Weiss, a pioneering physicist and MIT professor who helped develop the LIGO detector, alongside comedian Matt Kirshen. They delve into the fascinating world of gravitational waves, exploring their significance and relation to black holes. Rainer shares personal anecdotes about teaching relativity and the early skepticism faced in securing funding for LIGO. The conversation demystifies complex scientific concepts, linking Einstein's revolutionary ideas to our understanding of the universe, and highlights the challenges in detecting these cosmic ripples.
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Gravitational Waves Explained
- Gravitational waves are traveling distortions of spacetime, primarily measured as distortions in space.
- They stretch and compress space perpendicular to their direction of travel, like a slinky expanding and contracting.
Teaching General Relativity
- Rainer Weiss, while a young professor at MIT, had to teach general relativity despite not knowing much about the subject.
- Students' question about gravitational waves prompted Weiss to develop a simple way to explain and potentially detect them.
LIGO as a Cosmic Recording Device
- Janna Levin's book, Black Hole Blues and Other Songs from Outer Space, connects LIGO to a cosmic recording device.
- This analogy resonated with Rainer Weiss, who had an early ambition to make music easier to hear.