HowLIGO detected Gravitational Waves
How LIGO detected Gravitational Waves
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Thursday, January 21, 2021
Nikola Tesla
I do not think you can name many great inventions that have been made by married men
Albert Einstein
Imagination is more important than knowledge.
The .gif shows the basic principles of how the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory ([LIGO](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LIGO)) detected gravitational waves. In reality, the legs are 4km in length (as can be seen [here](http://www.ligo.org/science/GW-Overview/images/LLO.jpg)). The distortion by gravitational waves is massively exaggerated, as in reality, it is only 1/1000 of the diameter of a proton (which is also why gravitational waves were so difficult to detect).
This is the source video: https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/system/video_items/files/21/Einsteins_messengers_hi_res_Nov_17_MPEG720p.mp4?1447873693.
Given that the change they’re measuring is tiny, how can they be sure it isn’t caused by some kind of minute physical shift of the equipment/ground?
[I made a different version with slightly more legible text](http://i.imgur.com/uGz7NBs.gifv)
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Isn’t this similar to the Michelson-Morley experimental set-up?