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RE: Hunting gravitational waves with Virgo and LIGO

in #steemstem6 years ago

It's interesting to see how they create an interference using a very fundamental behaviour of light - reflection. I'm always in awe when the simplest engineering yields an amazing result. Light behaviour was my favorite topic in physics in the high school.

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The engineering is in fact a bit more involved. As the laser has to travel across kilometers, there is actually a very complex system of mirrors allowing to boost its power all along the way. But the key principle if very simple. We know the interference pattern of a gravitational wave and we "just" look for it.

You nailed it, simple principles are the bedrock of most complex systems.

That is so true and holds for so many things... ;)

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