> temp > à-trier > the-absurdity-of-detecting-gravitational-waves-veritasium

The Absurdity of Detecting Gravitational Waves

Veritasium - 2017-01-05

A head-vaporizing laser with a perfect wavelength detecting sub-proton space-time ripples.
Huge thanks to Prof Rana Adhikari and LIGO: http://ligo.org
Here's how he felt when he learned about the first ever detection: https://youtu.be/ViMnGgn87dg

Thanks to Patreon supporters:
Nathan Hansen, Donal Botkin, Tony Fadell, Saeed Alghamdi, Zach Mueller, Ron Neal
Support Veritasium on Patreon: http://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, http://www.incompetech.com "Black Vortex" (appropriately named)

Music licensed from Epidemic Sound http://epidemicsound.com "Observations 2" (also appropriately named)

erikig - 2017-05-12

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 cruncher have failed

deadeyes - 2020-03-08

@Luis Sierra i like your comment

MelficeN7 - 2020-03-12

@deadeyes Then you're dumb.

CHANGBA DINESH - 2020-03-13

Rana adhikari..isn't he Nepali?

Tee Se - 2020-03-21

@Commandelicious 1 mega watts detect 1021mega watts creates

ricky l - 2020-03-22

HAHAHAHAAA this is the best comment

Aries The Ram - 2019-06-01

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"

Hector Nonayurbusiness - 2020-03-18

Of course earth is round...... and hollow

Dr Deuteron - 2020-03-20

@Lars Alfred Henrik Stahlin both are approximations. Physically, it's fractal down to atomic sizes, while the shape of the equipotential gravitational surface is known to several thousand 'moments' (unclassified): https://earth-info.nga.mil/GandG/wgs84/gravitymod/egm2008/

Dr Deuteron - 2020-03-20

@DirtyBird760 So not true. Even on just the signal processing side, the development of signal detection in ultra low SNR has helped increase bandwidth across the world, leading to billions in increased productivity. The computational techniques in numerical relativity are phenomenal, and useful in other non-linear problems in engineering. Hardware wise, the ultra narrow band high power laser and a single 40 kg macroscopic quantum system is amazing, and will (or already does) have spin-offs. "creep noise" in silicon fibers has application in earthquake predictions...which could save 10's of billions plus lives.

Dr Deuteron - 2020-03-20

@Kouga I know plenty of smart scientists who believe completely ridiculous things. Scientists are just humans.

Dr Deuteron - 2020-03-20

@Duane. A Flat Plane- Bowerscott No, light travels 186 miles per millisecond, in which time gravity bends the path by 1/5000-th of an inch...and effect that is completly swamped by atmospheric gradients and turbulence.

Carlos Ponchio - 2019-05-30

that white shirt was last ironed in 1988, May 12.

daga - 2020-02-28

i think it's just the material :)

H M - 2020-03-17

He’s using the shirt to detect laser leakage. If it unwrinkled he knows there’s a problem

Samuel Wu - 2020-03-18

may 12 my birthday lol

N B - 2020-03-21

@Nyan Arthur that joke was not racist to begin with. Joyjit Roy is Bengali and so am I. It's just a bit of self deprecating humour.

Nyan Arthur - 2020-03-21

@N B Uf, didn't look that way for a foreigner like me

Safir - 2019-04-23

Aliens have this on their smartphones

Derek Boyt - 2020-02-24

Mandelbrot? I thought it was a Rorschachach. Small penis OR vagina and anus? Please tell me I’m not the only person that saw it.

Sector 7 - 2020-03-12

hii mr. mandelbrot set

Kym Hinklin - 2020-03-17

Can confirm, am waiting this on my smartphone

Small bean music - 2020-03-17

Actually they are as smart as a dog

Tee Se - 2020-03-21

aliens smart phones arnt detecting gravity waves.

alien children make gravitational waves and parents hang them on their fridges

Rishi Suresh - 2019-05-15

just a smoking stump lmfaoooo if that guy was any chiller he'd be dead

Honey Badger Offroad - 2019-08-05

He's at Cal Tech. He smokes pot.

Oreli - 2019-09-23

absolute zero

Ogpd - 2020-03-01

Honey Badger Offroad you sound so disapproving lmao even if he did, who are you to judge??

Nisarg Joshi - 2019-03-29

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

Regan Bond - 2020-02-16

I would say some humans are amazing.

pyropulse - 2020-03-02

Err, lol? Literally every measurement is that. Stop trying to sound clever.

Kat - 2020-03-07

@pyropulse
"Literally every measurement is that."
Literally, you are wrong.
We use fixed & standardized measures, defined by National/International organizations.
Unless you are somehow able to measure the length of an elastic object using an elastic measuring tape, while both the tape & the object are oscillating. 🤯
(& my simplified example isn't even close to describing what they actually achieved at LIGO, literally).

pyropulse - 2020-03-07

@Kat I majored in physics. Your statement was incredibly unclear, so I made fun of it.

Kat - 2020-03-07

@pyropulse
Although I didn't major in Physics (I'm just a plain ol' Engineer), I find Nisarg's statement incredibly accurate.
Being able to take an incredibly accurate measurement while our very instrument is fundamentally part of the system that's being affected by the physical property we are trying to measure, is indeed amazing.
If you, a physicist, think that this statement is ridicule-worthy, well, to each their own I guess. 🙂

Megumin - 2019-04-12

Nice minecraft redstone tutorial

Thiesen - 2019-07-23

SethBling would use armorstands

Kipotuzer TT - 2019-07-27

Wouldn't it be easier to just use commandblocks.

Hooded Kupo - 2019-09-24

@Kipotuzer TT dont cheat

Kevi Pegoraro - 2019-10-08

Communism and statism are rubbish.
humanity's greatest misfortune

Giovanni Marrero • 398 years ago • Edited - 2019-10-31

Silence commie

FBI - 2019-04-23

i’m stereotyping, but he’s the type of brown dude, with glasses that has hit the highest levels of chill and great to hang around with

Derek Boyt - 2020-02-24

I wonder how many trips he went on before he figured all of this out...?

Der Auditor - 2020-03-08

@fitnesspoint2006 yeah... this moment right here... what a dude! https://youtu.be/ViMnGgn87dg?t=93

Mo Money - 2020-03-12

indians are so cool, they're so nice and down to earth.

Michael c - 2020-03-21

N73B60 them too. I’ve worked them as my security and even in high pressure they are chill as all hell. I’ve seen em put people on the ground with a smile. Not my personal security let me clear these up

Clem Alford - 2020-03-22

Indians were into cosmic consciousness centuries ago, you know all that birth, preservation and destruction stuff to go around in another cycle of the same for eternity. He looks like he may have escaped being trapped in that cosmic cycle!!!

FluFF mallow - 2019-04-13

Orange crocs and those shades? what a legend

ZesPak - 2019-06-26

The shades are maybe mandatory in the "laser zone".

hamjudo - 2019-08-14

@Vallecaucanisimo

There are a whole bunch of lasers in the real-time measurement system that damps external vibrations. There are more lasers to worry about than the one in the tube.

They were standing next to a semi-functional scale model, far from LIGO. They have a very simple policy to protect people from the big beam. When people are working in that building, they shut off the beam. LIGO can't produce good data when there are people or other masses moving near by.

The scale model is used to test ideas before they start working on the real thing. It is functional in the sense that it is comparing laser beams in a vacuum, and there are real sensors being tested. It is not functional in the sense that it can't detect a real gravity wave. They have some other mechanism to move the mirrors do they can test hardware and software.

hamjudo - 2019-08-18

@Vallecaucanisimo No problem.

Some graduate student once put a laser enclosure back together wrong in a distant university research lab, and bad things happened. So now the safety engineers at universities and national laboratories want everyone to be at least two mistakes away from blindness, death, or dismemberment.

Derek Boyt - 2020-02-24

Voice: Kent, wake up!
Kent: Who is this?
Voice: It’s Jesus Kent! Stop playing with yourself!
Kent: It is god.

Dean Snipah - 2020-02-02

Ironed white shirt: Exists
Rana Adhikari: Let me introduce you to my friend.....







Her name is Fashion

Joseph Astier - 2019-09-10

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

MMCB - 2019-10-02

True 10 mm ≠ 0.1 mm :)

Progressive - 2020-02-23

yep.. crazy numbers and scales. My brain couldn't process this info so I went back to playing CoD MW

OuterRem - 2019-05-13

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.

Sukacita Yeremia - 2019-10-16

Lol, did a pack of bacteria waitlisted him?

Mark Nasia - 2019-11-05

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

Derek Boyt - 2020-02-24

And that is why he doesn’t lecture.

arcangeljp - 2019-03-14

All I heard was, " ...we have lasers... they will vaporize your head off..."

That One Guy - 2020-02-13

US gov be like

AmplifiedSilence - 2020-02-29

*Dr. Evil has entered chat*

Richard Ward - 2020-02-09

A megawatt won't even rip your head off, it will just vaporise.

So why are we bothering to wear these glasses?

Because they look badass, that's why

Brett B. - 2019-08-19

I thought the guy was meditating before explaining this.

H M - 2020-03-17

He was sleeping with his eyes open

WindTurbineUSA - 2020-02-20

They must have accidentally detected my girlfriend falling out of bed.

Joseph Armishaw - 2019-07-30

1/10000th the width of a proton? Wow, that's almost as small as my pp

Jamie Russell - 2020-02-09

that is the prob bruh. Yo' "pp" exhibits non locality. That is, it aint even existing 'tween yo' chicken scratchers(legs). fell ma'?

Bruce Zar - 2020-02-23

Unexpected self efacing humor. Funny as hell.

slomo rico - 2020-02-28

You must be British

Abhishek Pokhrel - 2020-03-10

Oooo self burn. Those are rare.

Backyard Music Feedback - 2020-03-20

Should have said almost as big would have been funnier

Rens - 2017-01-05

the guy looked so cool with his glasses lol

fck streetshitters - 2019-07-29

his name is pajeet,hes a tech support

Wes Netmo - 2019-08-03

scrolled down to write precisely this. cool af

Jason U - 2019-08-05

he reminds me of the russian scientist who goes crazy after being alone for so long in the movie Armaggedon

Jay S - 2019-08-31

Wrinkles in the time-space continuum caused by gravitational waves turned his perfectly ironed shirt into.that.

Justin Vache - 2019-09-09

Can't be letting the world know you are stoned to the bone while doing science or they might cut your budget.

jezzalinko - 2019-07-29

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

Jeffery Nelson - 2019-04-29

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.

Amateur Gamer - 2019-06-07

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

Lexender - 2019-09-03

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

Dr Deuteron - 2020-03-20

The technicians are very talented. Lots of work in the machine shop, and the alignment of everything is an epic survey challenge. Then you gotta maintain vacuum, temperature, and electrical stability. Plumbing too, water cooling, cryogenic systems, all without making too many vibrations.

Travis Bohanan - 2019-08-29

I think I just heard the scariest thing. It’s like nature wants us to stop, but we keep finding ways around it.

Jacob - 2020-02-17

That is how the heisenberg uncertainty principle seems. You can't know everything about particles at once. You can never actually know anything precisely, only relatively and with some nonzero degree of uncertainty.

The universe is some kind of medium seemingly designed to baffle our minds. Some kind of jelly that we can't quite grasp.

konkuruseyyi - 2019-08-30

indian in caltech,


and i was expecting raj.

Rahul Singh - 2019-11-13

Raaazzz

E H - 2020-03-09

Razzzzist

MR SLAV - 2018-06-09

Imagine explaining what you do to your investors

adlsfreund - 2019-08-18

The ignorant loud-mouths are in for a rude awakening if their understanding should ever become of any real consequence.

Sérgio Alves - 2019-08-27

@Lars Alfred Henrik Stahlin Wow you guys have been trolled hard lol


Stop feeding them already.

Ruben garcia varo - 2019-09-19

@Sérgio Alves lol Yea. This Nathanal Woodruff in particular is either a big troll or dumber than a sack of potatoes.

F.A - 2020-02-09

@MR SLAV, you here!!??

Jonny Roma - 2020-02-11

Peter Gibson actually, NASA didn’t build any rockets or space vehicles, they were contracted out to the private sector and the Gov took all the credit.

Spanky444 - 2019-07-11

Part of me wonders how much he was really joking when he said "It doesn't make any sense, this whole thing is bogus, shut it down!"

Levity - 2019-10-31

Till this day, I'm still processing the absolute scale of this bonkers project.

Tyler Almquist - 2020-02-10

That “50x greater energy released than everything else in the observable Universe” boggles my mind

Joe Playing Outdoors - 2020-02-15

My mind decided to accept it as BIG and leave it at that. ;>)

zzDolphinLegendzz 2nd channel - 2020-03-22

Its not possible because it's in the universe, so the universe has to be more

Stacy McCabe - 2020-02-06

2:09 the mirror is the smoothest ever created

Also him makes video: smoothest object that reflects

Abdul Moiz - 2020-02-12

2:06 is the smoothest mirror. He made a video on the smoothest thing ever. Not necessarily a mirror.

roberto R - 2019-07-15

I’ve been surfing gravitational waves for decades.

Miika Mäentaus - 2017-01-05

That guy's shirt has been affected by some gravitational waves

Lorenza Semaj McCoy Jr. - 2019-04-07

@Sky Lake Actually space and time are one and space-time is 4 dimensional. That's why we can't "see" it. It's 3 dimensions of space and one dimension of time.

whatever04 - 2019-04-22

Is that all you see?

Yeshua is Lord. - 2019-06-06

Didn't really understand the purpose of this video. I don't think anyone did.

JOYJIT ROY - 2019-06-14

HE'S A BENGALI, INDIAN. WHAT MORE CAN YOU EXPECT ?!! LOL

Awestruck Action - 2020-02-07

they hit this personality also

Somsubhra Ghosh - 2019-05-31

0:55 Visit the prof

mission passed!
Respect+

BHK - 2019-06-02

Lmao

White Banshee - 2019-06-26

Lol

Talal Altibany - 2019-07-05

As a man I need just to feel the gravity wave of a beautiful girl, clash of two black holes is not my business

c0ldw1nd - 2020-03-07

Humans:


Aliens: DIY Gravitational waves detector with 2 eBay laser pointers and a mirror | Easy life hacks

Amongst You - 2020-03-22

😂😂🤣🤣🙈🙉

MaQuGo119 - 2019-04-11

If that dude needs someone to iron his shirts I work for a greencard.

Bill A - 2019-04-17

Oh it's just the gravitational waves that wrinkled it... no biggie.. now get me that iron please. tsk-tsk

J Pa - 2017-01-06

*video starts
*doesn't understand anything
*keeps watching
*video ends
*feels smart

mrgomelonsolaris - 2017-12-12

but why show less?

dddmemaybe - 2018-09-09

Far away burst of gravity makes big wave.
See big wave by looking close at big, long laser beam.
Need big long laser beam because hard to notice gravity wave.
What do we get from these vision? Not much yet but could help us circumvent potential future natural disasters that come from space. We don't really have the other necessary angles of technology to make great use of viewing gravitational waves, at least I don't think we have anything.

Ardit Dafku - 2018-09-10

dont forget *Watch another video of the same absurditiy

Николета Генова - 2018-12-02

- Video starts
- Don't* understand anything

The One - 2020-03-22

@Toy-joda i guess you can understand but its not intuitive is what hes trying to say. Ull have to revisit the vid and think about it. Same for me. But if u got it at one go good for you. Also to understand you need basic knowledge of how interference works.... So yeah a background in atleast undergrad physics?

Holo Sim - 2019-03-04

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)

Carazy123 - 2019-03-18

1:07

Cœur fimo - 2019-12-23

1:14 ok but am I the only one having a elonmuskdolphinmemeflashback here?

zzDolphinLegendzz 2nd channel - 2020-03-22

Was I in this?

Smitty - 2019-06-26

"1 megawatt.. you know.. boom.. won't even rip your head off just a smoking stump" The way he tells this is just so funny to me

Sb Kaggle - 2019-11-08

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.

FFGG22E - 2020-03-16

Its funny that so many smart people cant see how this makes no sense

Trent Wickham - 2019-05-13

0:44 every flat earther just cried

Rauf Hannan Azizi - 2019-11-13

This just came out for my A Level paper and I wish I had watched this sooner:(

ⵣ Raised_by_Wolves - 2019-08-23

Im going to explain this tonight while im drunk to someone also drunk just to see what happens :) thx great video

jom j - 2019-09-02

explain it to me because I think it's wrong.

pjak1minecraft - 2019-09-15

Just few more years of not ironing this guys shirt and it will absorb all of incoming light

Guy Reshef - 2019-05-01

Tried so hard to understand..
Gave up.

Aldo Ryan - 2019-04-13

You lost me at, "hello"

Thomas Thomas - 2019-06-11

In 1862 Léon Foucault mesured the speed of light with an error of a billionth of a second.... No laser. No electronics. No electricity.
Look at the experiment...

PointBlank00 - 2019-04-21

Why does this scientist look like a Hawaiian surfer

Ahamed Maluk - 2019-07-11

This brown Bengali guy is the Coolest scientist I've ever seen, so far.

Max Peters - 2019-12-02

When i'm heating my food in the microwave 1:08

Weitop - 2019-04-09

I got a theoretical degree in physics and I understand nothing

Nacho Rivera - 2019-09-25

@LeeroySchenckins best comment ever, well today

Josho4096 - 2019-10-04

@lushin burl He was joking, he didnt say a degree in theoretical physics BUT a theoretical degree... meaning "lets make believe" I love the response of someone saying he only has a hypothetical degree, which is like a masters to a doctorate. lol, you guys made my day with the comments!

Josho4096 - 2019-10-04

I got my conjectural degree in Physics in 12 weeks from University of Phoenix. Maybe I get to work as janitor at LIGO?.

Levity - 2019-10-31

Sounds like something an amateur physicist would say. I am one, but I wouldn't say it.

Arc Kocsog - 2019-11-14

Even I understood it and I'm just a lowly economist.

KusoKuraei - 2019-03-28

It's a distress call from Mr. Stark

1ucasvb - 2017-01-05

Hah, Prof. Rana is awesome!

Mike Jia - 2017-01-06

such a chill dude. "This whole thing is bogus! Shut it down!"

Gurpreet Singh Matharoo - 2017-01-06

Yeah, imagine Cosmos season 2 with Rana Adhikari

Helge Frisenette - 2017-01-06

Raul Limos are you kidding?! I was about to say how awesome it looked!

Sizzlin - 2017-01-06

Helge Frisenette u r right and wht matters is the work he is doing nt the shirt

Kea Morshed - 2017-06-03

1ucasvb yeah wish I had him as a teacher