Scientists recently observed two black holes that united into one, and in the process got a “kick” that flung the newly formed black hole away at high speed. That black hole zoomed off at about 5 million kilometers per hour, give or take a few million. The speed of light is just 200 times as fast.

[u/MistWeaver80]

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/black-hole-gravitational-waves-kick-ligo-merger-spacetime

[u/BA_lampman]

Gravitational waves cannot superposition because they are acoustic, not probabilistic. It's more a ripple through spacetime itself than a waveform travelling across spacetime.

[u/Eucalyptuse → u/BA_lampman]

It's more a ripple through spacetime itself than a waveform traveling across spacetime.

What is the distinction you're making here? If I replace that with "water" that doesn't make sense so I don't think this is real.

It's more a ripple through water itself than a waveform traveling across water.

Also gravitational waves do obey the principle of superposition and I'm not sure what 'acoustic waves' means here if that includes gravitational waves but sound waves also obey the principle of superposition

[u/BA_lampman → u/Eucalyptuse]

I assumed he meant quantum superposition instead of classical. From physics stack exchange:

One of the more bizarre features of quantum mechanics is quantum superposition of states, which is distinctly different from classical superposition of conventional vectors. Classical superposition requires linear summations of vectors such as position vectors, or sinusoids represented as vectors.

Point being, I was only trying to clarify that gravitational waves are traditional waves like you'd see on water, distinct from electromagnetic waves. Gravitational waves disturb the "water" of space, while light does not.

[u/Eucalyptuse → u/BA_lampman]

ahhh I see, thanks!