Re: [Phys-L] gravitational waves (Ludwik Kowalski)

["Donald Polvani" <dgpolvani@verizon.net>]

Ludwik, by including a copy of your messages sent to Cc:
phys-l@www.phys-l.org, I end up getting two copies of your messages (i.e.
the "To" one and the "Cc" copy.  At first I didn't understand why the two
copies were occurring, but John Denker pointed out the reason the other day.
In order to save message space, would you consider leaving out the Cc copy?

Thanks,
Don

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Phys-l [mailto:phys-l-bounces@www.phys-l.org] On Behalf Of Ludwik
> Kowalski
> Sent: Monday, April 18, 2016 9:40 AM
> To: Phys-L@Phys-L.org
> Cc: phys-l@www.phys-l.org
> Subject: Re: [Phys-L] gravitational waves (Ludwik Kowalski)
>
> Thank you for replying, William.
>
> 1) As you certainly know, most elementary physics textbooks do not
> introduce special relativity before introducing gravity.
>
> 2) Gravity is explained in terms of Newton's laws
>
> 3) That seems to be a pedagogical barrier, for most high school and
college
> teachers. What do you think about this?
>
> 4) What do other EPO people think about the need to overcome the barrier?
>
> Ludwik Kowalski (See Wikipedia )
>
> ==========================================================
> ==
>
> On Apr 18, 2016, at 12:03 AM, William Katzman wrote:
>
> > A few clarifications..
> >
> > > 1) Below is the link to FAQ about gravitational waves.
> > >
> > > http://www.ligo.org/science/faq.php#what-are-gw
> > This is one of several FAQs.  This FAQ is compiled by LIGO Scientific
> Collaboration (LSC) Education and Public Outreach (EPO) members on an ad-
> hoc basis.  This collaboration involves over 1000 people, but only a
handful of
> them actively work on EPO.
> > Another FAQ is: https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/LA/page/faq
> > And a primer of sorts is at: https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/LA/page/learn-
> more as well as: http://www.tapir.caltech.edu/~teviet/Waves/gwave.html
> and http://ligo.org/students_teachers_public/read.php .
> > > 2) The answers were given by "LIGO Science Education Center," whose
> director is William Katzman.
> > I had almost nothing to do with the FAQ at ligo.org, as most of it
predated
> me.  I work at the Livingston Observatory (which is only one small portion
of
> the LSC) , managing their Education and Public Outreach.  I am also in the
> handful of LSC-EPO folks.  At Livingston we keep the explanation of
> gravitational waves generally non-quantitative since it doesn't seem to
add
> to understanding.  Gravitational waves are transverse, although I find
this to
> be a less critical distinction than many of my colleagues.  We do use the
> trampoline model of the universe to explain gravitational waves.  It is
flawed
> - as the mathematics don't work well, but it does provide several apt
> analogies - including the analogy that it actually can stretch - like
space.
> Saying that gravitational waves are ripples or waves on that trampoline
like
> model seems to get across the basic idea to a wide range of people, but it
> doesn't get into the hairy details of it being a quadrupole wave.  I think
it's
> smart to introduce gravitational waves in a general manner, because
they're
> in the news and therefore can serve to inspire a subset of people to study
> science more, ut for introductory students I wouldn't approach it
> quantitatively since that requires an understanding of GR.
> > > 3) He posted a Phys-L message (on 4/13/2013). Is he a PHYS-L su
bscriber?
> I assume so.
> > Yes, I (William Katzman) am a subscriber in digest format.
> >
> > Cheers,
> >
> > -William
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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