Dr Brian Cox tries to explain a Gravity Wave

WJBardenV Says:

Apr 10, 2012 - A vacuum is emptiness, space is the fabric that makes up the universe. It can be warped, bent, stretched, etc. And effects like gravitational lensing make it very esay to visualise.

WJBardenV Says:

Apr 10, 2012 - what you described is a vacuum, space is the fabric that makes up the universe, it can be warped, bent, stretched, contracted, etc. Analogies just make it easier since it is an unfamiliar concept to both. One could easily think of it as transparent jello, or a vast ocean. Really, if you want a picture of bent space, you could just draw out a grid where the lines suffer localized distortion.

WJBardenV Says:

Apr 10, 2012 - Maybe the Producer was Karl Pilkington?

junior00bacon00chee Says:

Apr 10, 2012 - "space is the fabric" I know, I've read all the major works intended for public consumption, like brief history, or elegant universe. You can attach any number of familiar terms like "fabric" to it all day long, but that still doesn't allow us to visualize warped space. Every single example you are giving me is lower dimensional! Those are not representations of what "warped space" ACTUALLY looks like b/c it can't be visualized in three dimensions.continuing...

junior00bacon00chee Says:

Apr 10, 2012 - "effects like gravitational lensing"This is irrelevant. What we are talking about is not the alleged effects of warped space, but warped space itself. What is the entity that causes gravitational lensing?! If this entity cannot be imagined then the explanation for why light bends around a star cannot be imagined and we learn nothing.Like I said, it's all smoke and mirrors and self-deception. Quite amazing how the most brilliant minds have been captured by it.

WJBardenV Says:

Apr 10, 2012 - Gravitational lensing lets you see the warping, and why is it so difficult to imagine the warping in three dimensions? We live in 3 dimensions, they are part of our every day experience, ocean waves are three dimensional, they have length, width, depth, so I fail to understand your assertion that no human could comprehend anything in 3 dimensions.

junior00bacon00chee Says:

Apr 10, 2012 - No it doesnt, the warping is the proposed explanation for what we see! What we see is light bending around a star, there could be alternative explanations. If you could see warped space then you could draw a picture of it.And I never asserted that. I'm saying that "warped space" cannot be shown in three dimensions. Do you understand what I mean by "lower dimensional analogy?" Just look at the gravity well, it's a 2D sheet bent into 3D which is supposed to REPRESENT a 3D object warping into 4D.

junior00bacon00chee Says:

Apr 10, 2012 - The gravity well is the bowl like object commonly depicted to explain why the Earth stays in orbit around the sun, it's supposed to HELP us visualize Einstein's general relativity. But, if you ask a physicist, "So you're saying there's these bowl things floating out in space which push on the Earth?" They'll say, "No, that's just a lower dimensional drawing which is supposed to help the layman understand." They can't draw warped space as it is supposed to exist b/c it's 4D.

3nineveh Says:

Apr 10, 2012 - It reminds me of a little talk I had with my friend, a philosophy student, about something physics related but rather basic and at the end of me talking, waving my hands and doing silly sounds he just looked at me... (silence)... and said "and you actually believe it?!" :D

gayasthedayislong Says:

Apr 20, 2012 - i dont get brian cox. whoever was asking question here is an ass, but come on, he never eplains anything, he just tries to sound deep or something. but what the hell does he even mean half the time? he's dumbing everything down so much it sounds lik hes teaching physics to 5 year olds. a wave of spacetime? what exactly is it moving ALONG?

aradioactivedonut Says:

Apr 21, 2012 - Isn't that just the inherent flaw of popular science?How can you expect him to explain something meaningful without describing the maths that it's based on?It's why people go to university.Besides, if television decided it really wanted to teach high level concepts in physics than they wouldn't have hired him.

gayasthedayislong Says:

Apr 22, 2012 - haha yeah... but sometimes concepts can be discussed without the mathematics. It just has to be eplained in the right terms. I like Richard Feynman's pragmatism for instance. But with most pop physics, everything has to be these fantastic concepts that skips actually explaining what things are and how they are related to other things and explains them in terms of weirdness or something. I hate Cox for that, he's not genuinely teaching us science, he's giving a pretty picture

tomwiddv2 Says:

Apr 28, 2012 - with the one word 'tough' it sums up Brian Cox being a total legend... he is insanley intelligent and he chooses just to be like 'i dont give a shit'

Krisisonfire Says:

Apr 30, 2012 - he just said in the video "nothing is moving". Wow.

gayasthedayislong Says:

May 2, 2012 - "it would be a moving and stretching of space". wow

NoodleNog Says:

May 4, 2012 - Brian is confusing lateral and longitudinal waves. Still easy enough to understand. Spacetime is the medium, none of it travels, but a disturbance is propagated through it like a pressure fluctuation in air (a sound wave) causes adjacent air particles to be disturbed, which continues in an outward fashion from the source. The only unintuitive part about it is the fact that it is happening without matter interacting i.e. it happens to spacetime itself.

Bozo853 Says:

May 7, 2012 - Brian is making perfect sense. That fool asking the questions should start by reading "QM for dummies."

larsone103 Says:

May 11, 2012 - his producer pisses me off

adi87tya Says:

May 11, 2012 - You sort of can -- by making analogies. But I agree, it's really tough because all analogies fall apart.

RgSideeeeeeeeee Says:

May 15, 2012 - So the producer is the one responsible for dumbing down the series

2012felixx Says:

May 17, 2012 - 1:07 "I can't see that as a wave"... "Tough" haha, brilliant

denzxz8 Says:

May 21, 2012 - i guse he got mind fuq

HeatherRuthDiane Says:

May 22, 2012 - It's not obvious because we're not as brainy as you, Brian, but you are welcome to try and teach me anytime!!!

redhardyhil1 Says:

May 26, 2012 - the producer is one hell of a dumbfuck