Talk:Gravity wave

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The page doesn't say what a gravitational wave is.

It does now -- I hope satisfactorily. — Toby 10:24 Nov 11, 2002 (UTC)

In case anybody does know: are gravitational waves supposed to be longitudinal waves or transverse waves? Ellywa 12:52, 24 Sep 2003 (UTC)

I got an answer from user:Andre Engels at nl:wikipedia, generally it is thought that these waves are transverse, based on general relativity. Ellywa 07:54, 25 Sep 2003 (UTC)

It has been proposed that they are a longitudinal scalar waves by some researchers (which my bet is on, though I'm probably wrong ... so everyone will have to wait for further data). It is really unknown [and may exhibit feature of both (i.e., Duality)]. JDR

[edit] Gravitational waves do not change the strength of gravity.

The concept of "the strength of gravity will go up and down as a gravitational wave passes" is, at least for the case of small amplitudes, wrong.

A GW changes the distance between freely falling test particles, but it will not change the strength of gravity as such. Given a GW with sufficient amplitude passing by while you are standing on a bathroom scale, the reading on the scale would not change. Your legs might be shortened (or lengthened, depending on the phase of the wave), though.

[edit] No, it doesn't

Grammar and punctuation errors at the beginning of this article make it impossible to understand, even when the punctuation and subject/verb agreement is corrected:

In fluid dynamics, gravity waves are waves generated in a fluid medium (or at the interface between two mediums, e.g., the atmosphere or ocean) which has the restoring force of gravity or buoyancy.

"...which has the restoring force of gravity or buoyancy": Does that refer to the waves, or to the medium? ...and, in either case, what is meant by "the restoring force"?

The article should also explain why this phenomenon should be called a gravity wave when this term means something different when speaking of General Relativity. rowley 23:50, 28 December 2006 (UTC)

It clearly refers to the fluid medium, which is singular. If it was referring to the waves (plural) it would say "which HAVE". Also there is an article about "Gravitaional Waves", the term you are referring to in physics, and that article redirects you here along with explaining how gravitational waves are sometimes INCORRECTLY called gravity waves.70.125.103.247 01:26, 4 February 2007 (UTC)