> the wave and the force are the same thing? Nope. This is a common misconception. The difference between gravitational waves and gravity is a little bit like

> the wave and the force are the same thing? Nope. This is a common misconception. The difference between gravitational waves and gravity is a little bit like the difference between electromagnetic waves (emitted by an accelerating charge) and the electrostatic force (caused by a net charge at rest). It's not possible to detect the effect of a charge far away, but easy to detect the propagating electromagnetic wave (light, ratio, etc).