3 ms·
Think of waves in a pond when you drop a rock in. The energy spreads out as it travels into the farthest reaches of the pond.
by kordless 11y ago
Think of waves in a pond when you drop a rock in. The energy spreads out as it travels into the farthest reaches of the pond.
- davrosthedalek 11y agoOnly that in space, it drops even faster: The wavefront carries the same energy, but spread out over ever increasing length/area. For gravitational waves (or radio waves) they form spheres, not circles, and the surface size scales with r^2, not r. (Also water waves are /complicated/)
- bzbarsky 11y agoRight, but LIGO detects wave amplitude, not wave energy, which goes down as 1/r.
- davrosthedalek 11y agoOh, interesting point! I now have to wrap my head around that information transfer normally means energy transfer...