A head-vaporizing laser with perfect wavelength detecting subproton space-time ripples.
Many thanks to Professor Rana Adhikari and LIGO: http://ligo.org
This is how he felt when he learned of the very first detection: https://youtu.be/ViMnGgn87dg

Thanks to Patreon supporters:
Nathan Hansen, Donal Botkin, Tony Fadell, Saeed Alghamdi, Zach Mueller, Ron Neal
Support Veritasium on Patreon: http://bit.ly/VePatreon

Many videos have covered the general overview of the discovery of gravitational waves, what they are, the history of the research, when they were found, but I wanted to delve into the absurd science that made this detection possible .

When scientists want a megawatt of laser power, it's not just for fun (although I'm sure it's that too), it's because fluctuations in the number of photons are proportional to their root square, which makes the more powerful beams less noisy (as a fraction of their total). The smoothest mirrors were not created for aesthetic pleasure, but because when you are trying to measure vibrations that are only a fraction of the width of a proton, a rough mirror surface simply won't do. not the case.

Filmed by Daniel Joseph Files

Music by Kevin MacLeod, http://www.incompetech.com /"Black Vortex/" (appropriate name)

Music licensed by Epidemic Sound http://epidemicsound.com /"Observations 2/" (also appropriately named)

Please take the opportunity to connect and share this video with your friends and family if you find it useful.