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I wonder what it would feel like to be in a gravitational wave that was strong enough to feel but not strong enough to tear the planet to pieces. I've been in a

I wonder what it would feel like to be in a gravitational wave that was strong enough to feel but not strong enough to tear the planet to pieces. I've been in an earthquake before, and my best point of reference for that was that it felt a lot like standing on a boat as it rocked back and forth. Would this feel the same?

52-6F-62 9y ago
That's an interesting analogue if it's accurate. I never thought I would see waves flowing through a granite flooring until I experience a level 4 or 5 earthquake in a mid-century building. My brain couldn't register what was occurring at first.
- PoachedSausage 9y ago
  We don't get many or very powerful earthquakes in the UK, but once I was working in the loft of a house near the epicentre of one, you could see the beams move in wave.
  - 52-6F-62 9y ago
    I'm in Toronto, and we don't either. It is nothing less than surreal.
gajomi 9y ago
EDIT: I just realized you were talking about a hypothetical wave, and not the particular one here, so my comment below doesn't actually address your question :) I am not an astrophysicist, but was also wondering the same thing. Gravitational waves move at the speed of light. Here is a graph showing the wavelength of gravitational waves from various sources http://www.tapir.caltech.edu/~teviet/Waves/gwave_spectrum.html http://www.tapir.caltech.edu/~teviet/Waves/gwave_spectrum.ht... The Ligo sensitivity range is about 10^6 meters. The speed of light is about 3*10^8 m/s. So peak to trough a few hundred per second. Much higher frequency than earthquake.
- rcthompson 9y ago
  So would you hear it as a 100 Hz tone? Feel it as a vibration in your bones? (Again, assuming an amplitude somewhere between perceptible and lethal, and assuming you're protected from other almost certainly lethal forms of radiation at that distance)
  - badosu 9y ago
    It seems the wave is quickly dampened so I think if it would be strong enough (if you were near the source for instance) to have any impact on your body you would receive the tearing forces on your organs almost instantaneously and be damaged before you could even notice anything. Edit: A sibling comment has a physics exchange link to a proper answer
  - nerfhammer 9y ago
    It's the same frequency that we hear when we turn the LIGO gravitational wave into a sound wave (frequency wouldn't change with distance, right?), so presumably maybe it would sound just like that? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyDcTbR-kEA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyDcTbR-kEA If you turn it up real loud and press your hand against your speaker maybe it would be some idea of what it would feel like.

52-6F-62 9y ago

That's an interesting analogue if it's accurate. I never thought I would see waves flowing through a granite flooring until I experience a level 4 or 5 earthquake in a mid-century building. My brain couldn't register what was occurring at first.

PoachedSausage 9y ago
We don't get many or very powerful earthquakes in the UK, but once I was working in the loft of a house near the epicentre of one, you could see the beams move in wave.
- 52-6F-62 9y ago
  I'm in Toronto, and we don't either. It is nothing less than surreal.

gajomi 9y ago

EDIT: I just realized you were talking about a hypothetical wave, and not the particular one here, so my comment below doesn't actually address your question :) I am not an astrophysicist, but was also wondering the same thing. Gravitational waves move at the speed of light. Here is a graph showing the wavelength of gravitational waves from various sources http://www.tapir.caltech.edu/~teviet/Waves/gwave_spectrum.html http://www.tapir.caltech.edu/~teviet/Waves/gwave_spectrum.ht... The Ligo sensitivity range is about 10^6 meters. The speed of light is about 3*10^8 m/s. So peak to trough a few hundred per second. Much higher frequency than earthquake.

rcthompson 9y ago
So would you hear it as a 100 Hz tone? Feel it as a vibration in your bones? (Again, assuming an amplitude somewhere between perceptible and lethal, and assuming you're protected from other almost certainly lethal forms of radiation at that distance)
- badosu 9y ago
  It seems the wave is quickly dampened so I think if it would be strong enough (if you were near the source for instance) to have any impact on your body you would receive the tearing forces on your organs almost instantaneously and be damaged before you could even notice anything. Edit: A sibling comment has a physics exchange link to a proper answer
- nerfhammer 9y ago
  It's the same frequency that we hear when we turn the LIGO gravitational wave into a sound wave (frequency wouldn't change with distance, right?), so presumably maybe it would sound just like that? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyDcTbR-kEA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyDcTbR-kEA If you turn it up real loud and press your hand against your speaker maybe it would be some idea of what it would feel like.