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Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!harpo!floyd!clyde!ihnp4!astrovax!mwe
From: mwe@astrovax.UUCP (Web Ewell)
Newsgroups: net.space
Subject: Re: gravity waves
Message-ID: <116@astrovax.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 10-Nov-83 11:48:51 EST
Article-I.D.: astrovax.116
Posted: Thu Nov 10 11:48:51 1983
Date-Received: Sat, 12-Nov-83 05:33:56 EST
References: <690@ihuxm.UUCP>
Organization: Princeton Univ. Astrophysics
Lines: 21

RELATIVISTIC JET ON!

I don't know who your instructor was, but hopefully it was you who misunderstood
him, not him making an unforgivable error. 

But because we seem to be quoting authorities here...

My general relativity instructor was Kip Thorne. He said that Einstein's field
equations could describe the propogation of gravity waves. In fact, any change
in the curvature of space time is caused by such waves. He also said that the 
waves are non-linear (because gravity waves carry energy => mass; a similar case
would be if the photon carried electric charge). This means that the equations
can't be easily solved, but it doesn't mean that Einstein's theory doesn't
predict the waves. The linearized equations you saw are the weak-field limit,
which make the approximation that the energy carried in the waves is negligible.
These can be solved, and they represent very closely what happens in Einstein's 
theory in this limit.

					CRAWLING BACK INTO MY BLACK HOLE
					web ewell
					astrovax!mwe