Gravitational waves explained a little deeper

I discuss the detection of gravitational waves with my wife, Lianne.

A very exciting development for this video: Someone has asked if they can add subtitles! No one has ever asked to do this for a video of mine before.

So now, thanks to the wonderful Ger Hanssen, this video is more accessible. Just turn on Closed Captions to see his great work.

Rubber sheet analogy:

Proper space curving demo:

[parsahosseini]

I love the part that Steve says: "It's an explanation of gravity, that requires gravity".
Thank god I'm not alone:)

[stephencoles]

My wife appreciates that she's not the only partner who has these deep conversation/explanations.
Great format, great explanation

[zetkorp]

I just stumbled upon your video now, four years after it was posted and I must say it restored a lot my depleted trust in humanity and what couples can be. I'm in a rough patch with my loved one and you just showed me all the things worth fighting for... Respect, intelligence, innocence, beauty, curiosity... I wish you all the best in the world. And, thank you :)

[nat]

More of this please! I could do this ALL day. Seeing you two together chatting is the most endearing and engaging way to learn. Love it

[Wellfan]

Poor Lyra, she's gonna grow up looking to engage other children in conversations about the properties of light, particles and massive objects, and they'll just be looking back at her like, "wut?”

[markstanbrook]

Really enjoyed this. Watching you work out how to explain something this complicated was very informative. The light tone and the back and forth helped me see how I can be better when I attempt scientific exposition.

[SkyOnosson]

"Let's call the whole thing off"

"Ha ha ... what?"

[beactivebehappy]

1:54 I want someone to look at me the way Steve looks at Lianne! 😍😍

[hunszaszist]

Love the video format.
And love how Lyra was confused about why she has to wave goodbye, but played along anyways.

[dowdelljosh]

I really like this experimental format! Lianne asks great questions and seems as excited to dig into the topic as you are. Have you thought about doing more videos along these lines?

[gehteuchnichtsan]

The level of multi tasking when they summed up the theory and counting the clowns from.lyras book was exceptional.

[scribblescience]

This was fantastic, Steve. Really great to see someone take such an interest and having you there to guide them. Favourite moment for sure was "let's call the whole thing off" *laughter* "what?!" *jump cut*. Weirded a few people out by laughing a bit too loud at that!

[DomenBremecXCVI]

"Nice work Einstein!" -quote of the year 2016

[cynderellylastname]

Omg this reminds me of my boyfriend and me! Except I like to talk more about math and he likes the astronomical stuff like black holes and gravitational waves. We're also both freshman/sophomores in college so we don't have really sophisticated conversations but we try lol.
Your wife is beautiful!

[mrblakber]

-can we start looking for wormholes?
-yeah [stares at wall]
lol

[FlyingJetpack]

I can detect disturbance in the curiosity field! Packets of awe are being detected by my sensors!

[Malaphor]

Steve, you are my hero! That has always been my biggest gripe about the ball and sheet explanation. Literally word for word.

[tone]

Really enjoyed this. Very long, so might not make sense to do that often, but very informative and engaging.

[oldcowbb]

I felt a great disturbance in the Field

[ales.f]

Although the video is much longer than usual I quite liked the conversation format. As an expert in a field you sometimes don't think you need explaining some things and this kind of format helps in this regard. I learned more from this conversation than from many articles that are floating around.