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The “Gravitation: From Newton to Einstein” chart illustrates the discovery of gravitational waves on September 9, 2015, from two merging black holes, as inferred from data from NSF’s Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO). Sidebar panels contrast Newton’s Law of Gravitation with Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity. Also included is a Newtonian calculation of a black hole’s event horizon, and an explanation as to the origin of gravitational waves in merging compact binary systems.
Online professional Development for Educators
Two courses were developed for use by instructors of lower-division calculus-based college physics courses through NSF grant PHY-1404215 Teaching Einstein’s Universe at Community Colleges, PI Pof. Lynn Cominsky, ( Sonoma State University).
Original material from LIGO: Waves and Gravity (2015) is available.
The material includes three chapters of original material with homework assignments:
Learning More About Light
Geometry and Gravity for Weak Fields
Astrophysical Sources of Gravitational Waves
As well as several sections of links to free sources.
LIGO: Detecting Gravitational Waves (2016)
The material includes five chapters with homework assignments as well as additional resources and references:
LIGO: The Basic Idea
Go to the Course
Direct Observation of Gravitational Waves
This Educator’s guide includes readings and activities suitable for students in grades 6 and higher.
It is available for download in different formats.
This website was created by Marc Favata, and includes many different sonifications of gravitational waves.
Gravitational Wave Open Science Center
This website includes tutorials, data and recorded lectures explaining how to analyze gravitational wave data from LIGO and Virgo.
Frequently asked questions (Kids version)
This colorful PDF flyer can be printed to distribute to kids who are curious about gravitational waves and LIGO.
This is the website for the LIGO Scientific Collaboration. It includes information about gravitational wave science as well as all the detections announced to date.
This video was created by Over the Sun, LLC. It uses actual CAD drawings of LIGO to show the path of the laser light through the system, and the response to a (greatly exaggerated) gravitational wave.
Scientific oversight was provided by Prof. Lynn Cominsky as part of the NSF grant PHY-1404215, Teaching Einstein’s Universe at Community Colleges.