3 ms·

What would be the advantage of using gravity waves?

lazysheepherd 8y ago
I was about to comment to state that there is no advantage because both gravitational waves and electromagnetic radiation travel at the same speed: "c". But then it struck me, maybe there will be one advantage, EM can be absorbed, blocked and warped while gravitational waves are not affected by anything, thus guaranteed to deliver the message(?)
- the8472 8y ago
  You could also use neutrinos for the same reasons and they have the advantage that it's a lot easier to emit them as a beam instead of omnidirectional waves.
krapp 8y ago
Maybe the complexity required in detecting them acts as a form of security by obscurity. It's far more likely that radio waves would be intercepted.
- MauranKilom 8y ago
  Radio waves were first predicted almost exactly 150 years before the first confirmed detection of gravity waves. Either signal takes millions to billions of years to travel across the universe.
sleavey 8y ago
One reason would be that gravitational wave amplitude decays only as 1/distance instead of electromagnetic radiation which decays as 1/(distance squared). ...But man-made gravitational waves are, without some scientific advance eclipsing the discovery of electricity, completely beyond any human capability of being produced at the levels required for extra terrestrial communication.
- maxxxxx 8y ago
  The amplitude decay certainly would be a very attractive feature for long distance applications. Maybe a gravity wave radar? Do they get reflected? Now we just need to mass produce black holes with the mass of the sun and bump them into each other :-)
- spacehome 8y ago
  This is incorrect. Amplitude decays as 1/distance, but energy (and power) decays as 1/distance^2. This is the same as electromagnetic radiation.
- andrewflnr 8y ago
  > gravitational wave amplitude decays only as 1/distance Wait, what? How? The wavefront still spreads out over the quadratically increasing surface of a sphere, right, just like EM waves?
  - ajkjk 8y ago
    I thought about objecting to that also. But the case of spiraling black holes is possibly dispersing energy only on the plane of rotation, so it might actually be 1/r?
- roywiggins 8y ago
  Gravity follows the inverse-square law. Every conservative vector field does, actually, and gravity behaves like one. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverse-square_law#Gravitation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverse-square_law#Gravitation

I was about to comment to state that there is no advantage because both gravitational waves and electromagnetic radiation travel at the same speed: "c". But then it struck me, maybe there will be one advantage, EM can be absorbed, blocked and warped while gravitational waves are not affected by anything, thus guaranteed to deliver the message(?)

the8472 8y ago
You could also use neutrinos for the same reasons and they have the advantage that it's a lot easier to emit them as a beam instead of omnidirectional waves.

krapp 8y ago

Maybe the complexity required in detecting them acts as a form of security by obscurity. It's far more likely that radio waves would be intercepted.

MauranKilom 8y ago
Radio waves were first predicted almost exactly 150 years before the first confirmed detection of gravity waves. Either signal takes millions to billions of years to travel across the universe.

sleavey 8y ago

One reason would be that gravitational wave amplitude decays only as 1/distance instead of electromagnetic radiation which decays as 1/(distance squared). ...But man-made gravitational waves are, without some scientific advance eclipsing the discovery of electricity, completely beyond any human capability of being produced at the levels required for extra terrestrial communication.

maxxxxx 8y ago
The amplitude decay certainly would be a very attractive feature for long distance applications. Maybe a gravity wave radar? Do they get reflected? Now we just need to mass produce black holes with the mass of the sun and bump them into each other :-)
spacehome 8y ago
This is incorrect. Amplitude decays as 1/distance, but energy (and power) decays as 1/distance^2. This is the same as electromagnetic radiation.
andrewflnr 8y ago
> gravitational wave amplitude decays only as 1/distance Wait, what? How? The wavefront still spreads out over the quadratically increasing surface of a sphere, right, just like EM waves?
- ajkjk 8y ago
  I thought about objecting to that also. But the case of spiraling black holes is possibly dispersing energy only on the plane of rotation, so it might actually be 1/r?
roywiggins 8y ago
Gravity follows the inverse-square law. Every conservative vector field does, actually, and gravity behaves like one. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverse-square_law#Gravitation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverse-square_law#Gravitation