Answer 1:
Gravitational waves would be experienced as
tidal forces, i.e. being stretched, then
compressed, then stretched, etc. I suppose that it
would be possible to come up with some clever way
to accelerate in a given direction using these
forces, but they could not be ridden on in the
same way that, for example, ocean waves could.
Gravitational waves are more like sound waves,
except that it is space itself that is stretching
and compressing, not just the molecules in a
substance. They would cause both time
dilation and time compression, but I doubt that
the net effect would be significant. |
Answer 2:
Not by normal matter.If gravitational waves
exist, they travel at the speed of light, and it's
impossible for matter to ever go that
fast. In theory gravitational forces can
cause time dilation, but it would be so small an
effect that we have no way to measure it. The
time dilation would be smaller than you would get
from standing on a stool! (Moving a little
farther from Earth's center of gravity changes
your "speed of time," but it's so small you never
notice.) Gravity waves themselves are extremely
difficult to detect--if they exist at all. We
might have to wait until the LISA project gets
launched into space. |
Answer 3:
The simplest answer here is that because of the
equivalence principle, gravity waves are time
retardation effects -- they are two ways of
viewing the same thing. Consider conventional
gravity you see every day. You don't feel the pull
of gravity, you feel the push of your feet from
your resistance to be at rest -- i.e. you are
continually accelerating just to remain still.
Acceleration is the rate of change of velocity,
and the rate of rate of position -- but your
position is constant. The only way this could be
true is that the time measuring the rates is
itself non-constant. The 'force' of gravity is
exactly the difference in rates of time due to the
mass of the earth. You don't normally notice this
difference because there is a large multiple (the
speed of light) as a scale factor. |
