Since LIGO Was Unsucessful in Detecting Gravitational Waves, Can't We Say With Certainty It Doesn't Exist?

Question

Since the Lazer Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory ("LIGO") been searching for Gravitational Waves none has been found to disrupt the lazer even though some scientists and Einstein even claimed gravity bends light. With certainty can't was say this theory is busted that Gravitational Waves even existed? And even gravity as some may claim to exist now is in question. No waves, no gravity. For the moment lets say gravitational waves did exist. Now they have a problem in explaining how a wave actually interacts with objects. It just doesn't work, it's virtually a dead end. This sounds like scientists already came to the conclusion that gravity exist and they are attempting to fill in the missing gaps but can't. Some have said things falling to the ground is evidence of gravity. In my opinion that can't be true. Your observing the effect not the cause. If this was a court case the moving party has not met their burden of proof showing that gravity or gravitational waves exist. There is no trail of evidence to indicate that they are true.

Answer 1

Let's not jump to any conclusions. The gravity waves they are looking for are extremely faint, and there's no guarantee LIGO is even sensitive enough to pick them up. Even if it is, the events they expect to see only happen three or four times a century, and it could easily get lost in the noise. Their equipment can pick up waves battering the shore hundreds or even thousands of miles away. They can pick up thunderstorms from across the continent. Just identifying and verifying a candidate signal could probably take months or years of analysis to dig it out of the noise.



Also, this has nothing to do with bending light. There have been plenty of direct observations of that and it is one of the many different lines of evidence that supports Einstein's General Theory of Relativity. LIGO uses lasers bounced back on themselves many times over because it is a very sensitive way to pick up displacement, not because light is an inherent part of this experiment. Gravity waves will stretch and compress the building by less than the width of a proton, and the laser interferometer will hopefully pick that up.



Look up the General Theory of Relativity and I'm sure you will find reference to many of the observations that have been made over the years which GTR and only GTR has been able to precisely predict.

Answer 2

For one thing, the threshold for LIGO is still relatively high (it would take a very strong gravitational wave to be detectable). If there was a pair of neutron stars orbiting each other in a decaying orbit (the decay being due to the loss of gravitational "luminosity" = the energy causing the gravitational waves), a few hundred light-years from us, LIGO should be able to detect that.



But there is not.



All we can "prove" with the absence of observation is that: there does not seem to be any gravitational waves stronger than LIGO's threshold.



Gravity does exist. What is in question is its nature. What really causes it. Is it a force or an effect?



Fortunately, this is not court case. And evidence does exist... except that it is (so far) only circumstantial -- and yes, circumstantial evidence CAN be accepted in court (until it is contradicted by more direct evidence).



Gravity exists (insofar as there is "something" that keeps massive objects orbiting each other). Orbits of neutron stars are seen to decay in accordance with predictions made in General Relativity. The decay corresponds to the amount of energy needed to generate gravitational waves. Scientists have been looking for other reasons for the decay and found none (which is NOT proof that there are no other reasons, only that the gravitational wave explanation is making more and more sense).

All circumstantial, for sure, but still admissible as evidence.

Answer 3

No. For one thing, the LIGO experiment is not finished; observations are nowhere near complete. But even if it did fail, all that this would have established would have been that this particular experiment was not able to detect gravitational waves. There are several reasonable conclusions that could be drawn from that:



* Gravitational waves do not exist.

* Gravitational waves do exist, but their properties are not the same as we expected and hence this experiment failed. There is a very big difference between "the model is not exactly the same as we thought" and "the model is outright wrong".

* Gravitational waves exist, but there was a flaw in the experiment that prevented it from detecting them. Either the experiment was poorly designed, not sensitive enough, or equipment failure stopped it from working.



Which of these conclusions is correct depends on the circumstances, and analysis of the results would be necessary to determine which is the case. In all likelihood, new experiments would be needed to confirm either way and obtain more data. It is very rare that a single experiment is the be-all-and-end-all of a given issue. Drawing conclusions as a result of a single experiment, and abandoning all further investigation, is bad practice, and often further investigation can shed more light on the incident.



To use your court analogy, what you are proposing is like interviewing a single witness, and if that witness hasn't seen anything, assuming that nothing happened and not bothering to interview any other witnesses.

Answer 4

We still cannot say with certainty that gravitational waves do not exist. The negative result only proves waves strong enough for LIGO to detect are not present at Earth at this time. In theory gravitational waves would be exceedingly weak unless there were some very powerful source of the waves pretty close to us. It is still possible the theory is correct but there is just no source of waves strong enough and close enough for that particular device to detect.

Answer 5

If you are convinced gravity does not exist, try a little experiment. Take a large rock and drop it on your toe. Perhaps that will convince you! Not only are you factually wrong on almost every count, your allusion to courtroom procedures does not stand up to scrutiny. Your use of your nickname is laughable in that your knowledge of science is that of an eighth grader, and is a bit like the janitor at the White House calling himself the President!

Answer 6

i don't think of the lack of measuring God is the project. you have been misinformed approximately what atheists think of. you purely gave the concept that describes gravitational waves as present. it incredibly is in accordance with data, observations, and experimentation. there is yet to be any style of knowledge to assist the existence of God, not purely the lack of measuring. Edit: what I meant became into that the whole concept of Relativity is in accordance with data, commentary, and experimentation. and you're arguing that atheists do not have self belief issues that are purely envisioned in concept, to be consistent. yet God isn't envisioned in any concept, so your argument is a Straw guy.

Answer 7

You cannot prove a negative or an absence. Gravity exists (how else are you stuck to this planet?) but generation and propagation are not clear at all. One experiment did not produce the hoped for/expected result - new hypothesis please.

Answer 8

HOW MANY $&@!ING TIMES ARE YOU GOING TO PUSH THIS BULLSHÏT?!?!!!?!



You are a hopeless moron. Troll.