Human Applications of Gravitational Waves

Jillian's Guide to Gravitational Waves : Human Applications

Otherwise known as 'what's the big deal.' Why is it important whether we can detect gravitational waves or not? It won't change the cost of bread. On a small scale, no, gravitational waves probably won't change anything. On a larger scale we could learn a lot more about certain heretofore invisible denizens of the universe and we could improve our understanding of spacetime itself. Just as each step of the electromagnetic observations lead to more discoveries, so, too, will gravitational waves change how we think of the cosmos. Our view of the universe would be in color and would also have sound, as the common analogy goes.

Really, people would use this information to increase our understanding of the less visible massive members of our universe, such as black holes and neutron stars. It is understandably very difficult to view a black hole by itself. Likewise, it's tough to pick out a single 20 kilometer wide neutron star in the vast reaches of space. Gravitational waves would, however, describe exactly what those crazy remnants are doing. Black hole theories are pretty sketchy as it is, and no one's really sure what happens when two black holes collide such as they would in a binary. What I gave was just a guess. A lot of guesses about black holes and neutrons stars would be verified or rejected if we could just learn more about them. Gravitational waves are a great way to do that.

One possible industrial application of this knowledge is humorously impossible: the synthesis of the graviton for the artificial gravity of Star Trek fame. It takes so much energy and mass to generate gravitational waves that it is quite inconceivable that humans could do it. The ones who stand to gain from the detection of gravitational waves are the astronomers and astrophysicists. New theories would rise and fall on gravitational waves and what they would tell us about the universe. As always, there will be improvements in materials science and signals science that occure during the attempt to detect these waves. Hey, the whole space project developed that fantastic material we call plastic. What might be labelled 'seemingly pointless' or 'far-flung' science does, in fact, have useful ramifications to the non-scientific community. I for one look forward to watching the tides. (see, this is the metaphorical reference, which signifies that I'm done chattering about gravitational waves; hope you enjoyed listening).

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