Recent content by Pete Muller

I extrapolated to 1 million km and got 28 mm for LIGO and about 13 micrometers for me. Clearly I am pushing the math here not to mention ignoring General Relativity. But still, the amazing thing is that 2 solar masses were converted to gravitational energy and the effect is so small. Gravity...

After more research, it seems that the Amplitude varies linearly with the distance. It is the energy that follows the inverse square law. That means that LIGO at 1 ly would have measured 3 nanometers of deflection. (Again if my revised math is correct) ;-) References...

I was reading about the latest black hole merger discovered by LIGO. https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/news/ligo20170601 The article states that the deflection of the arms over 4km was 1×10^-18 meters for an event 3 billion light years (ly) away. If I assume that gravitational waves follow the...

Thank you Ken G. Nothing like the pleasure of mostly getting a concept!

This zero temperature electron state confuses me. Does this mean that, while all of the lower electron energy states are taken, there is normally room at the higher energy states to change levels (partial degeneracy). So to keep the highest energy electrons from changing states the temperature...

So in a core collapse supernova is the process that the electron degeneracy pressure is eliminated because the electrons are used up in the e + p -> n reaction causing the collapse or is it overcome by gravity first?