Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
Most of us are aware of how a light prism works. We learned sometime in elementary school that
when light hits a prism light waves (or electromagnetic waves) are broken up and reflected as the
different colors of the rainbow. This is because each color has a unique wavelength that translates
to visible light. Similarly, we know that sound waves exist. Sound waves travel through the air
creating modulations caused by the vibrations of objects. As the waves enter the eardrums of
human brains, they interpret vibrations as sound. Countless measurement tools have been
developed to detect these types of waves and a vast amount of knowledge has been accumulated
due to these advances. Now astrophysicists are on a quest to prove the existence of gravitational
waves, innovating tools to measure waves caused by objects that distort time and space.
In the past decade, scientists have gathered a great deal of experimental evidence to
support the theory of gravitational waves. Gravitational waves are a key component in the
Theory of Relativity first suggested by Albert Einstein in 1915. This theory explains that gravity
is the product of the curvature of space and time altered by objects of great mass. This curvature
is what causes planets to orbit one another moving at different speeds. The energy released by
these orbiting masses is what scientists call gravitational waves.
The existence of gravitational waves has come to be regarded as groundbreaking in the
world of physics for its support of the Theory of Relativity. It was in 1960s when scientists first
began to try to prove this theory and measure gravitational waves. In 2010 they finally achieved
success due to an accumulation of technical inventions and improvements. These technical
improvements allowed scientists to come out of their discourse communities to the larger public
in 2015 with substantial and convincing evidence to support the theory of relativity and
gravitational waves.