Terminology can have different meanings in different scientific disciplines … which is why I was very excited to read this Vermont Public Radio story about a freak storm in Rutland, Vt., that was partly caused by gravity waves.
Gravity waves?! Cool!
Alas, turns out isn’t the physics world’s gravitational wave we’re talking about, but a badly named phenomenon in which waves of air current move vertically, often due to thunderstorms. The Rutland event was meteorologically interesting because no thunderstorm was involved – but it still wasn’t anything to get LIGO excited.
Return to the Concord Monitor
Gravity waves are aptly named since gravity is one of the two main forces involved. They’ve been discussed for a lot longer than gravitational waves have. Mountains form gravity waves all the time like a shoreline.
Perhaps a more accurate, but less Princess Bride-worthy, headline would be: “Gravity wave – that word does not mean what I think it means”