Brian Greene Breaks Down Einstein’s Theory of Gravitational Waves for Stephen Colbert

Earlier this month, we gave you this news bulletin: “scientists announced that they had recorded the sound of two black holes colliding a billion light years away, providing the first real proof that gravitational waves actually exist–something Albert Einstein predicted 100 years ago in his famous paper on general relativity.” This news actually gets much more interesting if you wrap your minds around the whole concept of Gravitational Waves, which is exactly what physicist Brian Greene–featured on this site many times before–set out to do when he appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert last week. Watch his visual-rich explanation above, and you’ll start getting a hang of the concepts. Below, for extra credit, you can watch another popularizer of science, Neil deGrasse Tyson, taking his own stab at explaining this phenomenon.

Related Content:

What Gravitational Waves Sound Like: New Audio of Black Holes Colliding Confirms Predictions Einstein Made 100 Years Ago

Free Online Physics Courses, part of our larger collection, 1150 Free Online Courses from Top Universities

Gravity Visualized by High School Teacher in an Amazingly Elegant & Simple Way


by | Permalink | Comments (1) |

Support Open Culture

We’re hoping to rely on our loyal readers rather than erratic ads. To support Open Culture’s educational mission, please consider making a donation. We accept PayPal, Venmo (@openculture), Patreon and Crypto! Please find all options here. We thank you!


Comments (1)
You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

Leave a Reply

Quantcast
Open Culture was founded by Dan Colman.