Math is often involved in the news, but rarely to the scale of detecting Gravitational Waves and thus proving that they and blackholes exist! Ask any G8 math student, what a gravitational wave is, how it relates to mathematics, and why this is so amazing, and they might surprise you with their answer. We all marveled at the fact that Einstein was able to predict the existence of gravitational waves, mathematically, 98 years ago! And were amazed that scientist and mathematicians were able to detect a seemingly immeasurable width that is comparable to the distance across one atomic nucleus.
What was great about the G8 students’ presentations is that even though they were given the exact same assignment, (i.e. What are gravitational waves? And what mathematics are involved in detecting them?) they shared and presented what they discovered each in their own unique way. Nice work with this inquiry assignment G8 students!
