16
votes
Could the human body feel the sudden disappearance or end of a gravitational force?
Firstly, the sun can't just "disappear". Even if it were converted by magic into "pure energy", that energy can't go anywhere faster than the speed of light, and Energy has ...
- 116k
9
votes
Radiation pattern of a GW source
Gravitational waves are tensor modes that are, in general, a mixture of two orthogonal polarisation states known as plus and cross.
By analogy with electromagnetic waves, you can refer to a wave ...
- 146k
4
votes
Gravitational waves vs. "normal gravity"
Acceleration isn't a property of spacetime per se. Two test particles at the same location can have different instantaneous accelerations, so just knowing that there is a passing gravitational wave ...
- 3,498
3
votes
Could the human body feel the sudden disappearance or end of a gravitational force?
No, the human body couldn't practically feel the sudden disappearance of a gravitational force
Humans are able to feel because different accelerations applied to different parts of the body cause it ...
- 131
3
votes
Gravitational waves vs. "normal gravity"
A gravimeter gauges the Earth's gravitational force by measuring the resistance it imposes on free fall. Technically, it is not measuring acceleration due to gravity, it measures the upward force ...
- 3,318
2
votes
Gravitational waves vs. "normal gravity"
In principle yes, in practice, probably not with current technology.
If a gravitational wave passes through the Earth then the Earth will respond by expanding and contracting. As a result, there will ...
- 146k
2
votes
Gravitational waves vs. "normal gravity"
This depends entirely on the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR > 10?). The safest way is to try it out, because a repeatable experimental result is better than any philosophical discussion. The stress $h_{...
- 91
2
votes
Accepted
Expected nature of LISA's data; will it be more like a forest of static peaks, or a series of individual events?
A discussion of the analysis of LISA data is given by Boileau et al. (2021). Specifically, they provide an in depth analysis of exactly the point you are interested in - to what extent is LISA able to ...
- 146k
1
vote
Accepted
Could the human body feel the sudden disappearance or end of a gravitational force?
While I think James K's answer is correct, it may help to add to the explanation.
Consider the traditional Newtonian definition of gravity:
$$ F = G \frac{m_1 m_2}{r^2} $$
The two $m$ terms refer to ...
- 134
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