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See the original image at summerscience.org.uk

Can You Hear Black Holes Collide?

summerscience.org.uk — The renewed search for gravitational waves.

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  • ubernoggin, on 07/02/2008, -3/+35If a tree falls into a black hole, and no "detectors" are pointed at it, does it create gravitational waves?
    • BigManOnCampus, on 07/02/2008, -3/+4Well, we won't know for light years anyway.
    • Ramble, on 07/03/2008, -12/+2If I fart in an empty room does it still stink of *****?
      • beckerist, on 07/03/2008, -3/+1no, it smells of a guy who's opinions I no longer care about

        blocked!
      • slifty, on 07/03/2008, -0/+4I mean, it was dumb, but blocked? really?
      • Tabris, on 07/03/2008, -0/+4It's gotta be announced, too.

        Blocked!

        Never understood why people feel the need to announce their blocking, rather than just doing it and carrying on.
    • MikeSD34, on 07/03/2008, -0/+20Schrödinger's cat says definitely maybe.
      • benjorino, on 07/03/2008, -0/+1Sadly Schrödinger's cat would be trapped in his box, so even if he was alive we wouldn't be able to hear what he was saying :(
  • CasaMan, on 07/02/2008, -1/+2the most fascinating gravitational wave detection apparatus is LISA to be launched in 2018..
    Check this out (the voice over is a bit funky):
    http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=DrWwWcA_Hgw
  • wynja, on 07/02/2008, -0/+1I wonder. Are there any existing theories that would predict the absence of gravitational waves?
  • fluidfoundation, on 07/03/2008, -0/+25I would imagine that if you're close enough to hear black holes collide, you're very well ***** anyway.
    • sockpuppets, on 07/03/2008, -0/+6The last time I heard that I was in a brothel. And yeah, I was... uh...
  • bwjacket, on 07/03/2008, -2/+1I saw that movie once in a hotel room when i was bored.
  • jamez, on 07/03/2008, -1/+1I would say yes.

    When black holes collide there are small pieces which escape the collision location, these areas would be prone to expelling sound.
    • aaeyers, on 07/03/2008, -1/+8I would have to say you don't have any understanding about sound, wave physics, or black holes.
  • zyl0x, on 07/03/2008, -4/+6This is what it's like when holes COLLIIIIIIIIIDE!
    • Foamator, on 07/03/2008, -0/+1Lol, PM5K.
      Now I wanna play Tony Hawk 2...
  • dashdingo, on 07/03/2008, -5/+4No. Black holes are found in space. There is no sound in space.
    • nyx210, on 07/03/2008, -6/+3Says who?
      • 1timeuser, on 07/03/2008, -1/+6Says every loser who hated star wars because of the first opening scenes.
      • moocowrat, on 07/03/2008, -2/+3says science.
      • Scynet, on 07/03/2008, -0/+8There is actually sound in space, but not any sound that the human ear can hear. Space isn't a 100% vacuum, there are some molecules.

        http://www.astronomycafe.net/qadir/ask/a11650.html

        Of course, to most people "sound" means something you hear, so in that meaning there isn't any.
      • thebellmaster1x, on 07/03/2008, -1/+2@Scynet
        And once we're already discussing quantum phenomena, it's not like "100% vacuum" means "no particles" anyway. There's loads of particle activity at the quantum level.
  • SmellyFingers, on 07/03/2008, -8/+2OVER 9,0000000000000000000000000000000000000000!
  • spearce, on 07/03/2008, -1/+4Can You Hear Black Holes Collide?

    are you referring to the double headed dildo scene from Requiem For a Dream? Then yes!
    • h3lx, on 07/03/2008, -0/+2Is that the one with David Bowie's chick from that muppet movie goes full on Ass-to-Ass with that other chick?

      /gonna have to remember to rent that.
    • theillest1, on 07/03/2008, -0/+3The double anal dildo (DAD) scene totally popped in my head as well!
  • breich, on 07/03/2008, -3/+13I think I'll rent "Ebony Scissorfights #19" tonight and find out...
  • Truzseeker, on 07/03/2008, -1/+1Steven Hawkins no longer supports his own theory. Guess no one paid attention to the Science channel special ?
  • zadadka, on 07/03/2008, -2/+1Sound occurs when compression waves travel through compressible gas and an appropriate audio receiver can detect them....space is a vacuum....so, ok, there might still be compression waves I grant you, but how would an audio detector work in a vacuum?
    If there was "sound", as we define it here on Earth, I say it couldn't be detected.
    • Scynet, on 07/03/2008, -0/+2But the space isn't a 100% vacuum, there are some atoms around. Not enough for human ear to pick the wave up, but enough for sensitive equipment.
      • zadadka, on 07/03/2008, -0/+1The distance between the atoms is not helpful to your quest...
  • joe8pack, on 07/03/2008, -1/+2blackholes discriminate against whiteholes and yellowholes and redholes, I personally find the whole blackhole theory reprehensible and will not donate a single iota of matter towards any known or unknown blackholes until these issues are resolved. I do however feel an attraction towards gravity waves, they just seem to pull me in.
  • Stormwern, on 07/03/2008, -3/+1So gravity isn't nice and simple anymore either? We've already pushed time, space, mass, causality, the speed of light and energy past the comprehension of any normal human, are there any fundamental laws of physics left?

    Maybe I'm just getting old.. (25)
  • mytibt, on 07/03/2008, -1/+0you can with the two headed urinals on digg yesterday
  • jdunlop2179, on 07/03/2008, -1/+1Since when could you hear sound in space?
    • Scynet, on 07/03/2008, -1/+3Since we were able to build devices that are ridiculously more sensitive than our ears.
      • jdunlop2179, on 07/05/2008, -0/+1what is the medium that the sound is traveling through?
  • Ocelot13, on 07/03/2008, -2/+1Does a bear ***** in the woods?
  • j4son, on 07/03/2008, -0/+2Sound waves do not travel in the vacuum of space. Sound travels basically the same "out there" as it does in here, it's just there isn't enough particles to produce a wave large enough for our ears to detect..
    However:
    Assuming that a sound wave could travel (particle to particle) in a gas density like that of outer space (1x10^-11 Pa), quantum effects would completely destroy any signal contained years before one particle could collide into the next.

    we _could_ create a device that can translate these waveforms into audible signals, but it just wouldn't be the same, would it?
  • FredFredrickson, on 07/03/2008, -0/+1Do inescapable natural disasters make a sound when they collide?

    Guess we'll just have to wait til November to find out!

    Nyuck, nyuck nyuck!
  • victimofkratina, on 07/03/2008, -0/+2it sounds like Powerman 5000.
  • thebellmaster1x, on 07/03/2008, -0/+6This is the stupidest thread of comments I've seen yet. Everybody is whining about the nonexistence of sound in space (which is mostly false anyway), when the article is about gravitational waves for Christ's sake.
    • j4son, on 07/23/2008, -0/+1Is this the first Digg thread you've looked at?
      No need to cite how it's mostly false. We'll just assume you're right. *****.
  • tmyprod, on 07/03/2008, -0/+1Yes, I do have an irreparably corrupted mind. Why do you ask?
  • wiggs08, on 07/04/2008, -0/+1is anyone around to hear it?
  • tprentice, on 07/04/2008, -0/+0This is a pretty bad description of how gravitational wave detectors work.
  • ChocChunkOaties, on 07/04/2008, -0/+1In space no one can steal your ice cream
  •  

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