First chapter-LIGO&CAMD

The LIGO trip was fun.LIGO will detect the ripples in space-time by using a device called a laser interferometer, in which the time it takes light to travel between suspended mirrors is measured with high precision using controlled laser light. Two mirrors hang far apart, forming one "arm" of the interferometer, and two more mirrors make a second arm perpendicular to the first. The two arms form an L shape. Laser light enters the arms through a beam splitter located at the corner of the L, dividing the light between the arms. The light is allowed to bounce between the mirrors repeatedly before it returns to the beam splitter. If the two arms have identical lengths, then interference between the light beams returning to the beam splitter will direct all of the light back toward the laser. But if there is any difference between the lengths of the two arms, some light will travel to where it can be recorded by a photodetector.
The space-time ripples cause the distance measured by a light beam to change as the gravitational wave passes by, and the amount of light falling on the photodetector to vary. The photodetector then produces a signal defining how the light falling on it changes over time. The laser interferometer is like a microphone that converts gravitational waves into electrical signals. Three interferometers of this kind were built for LlGO -- two near Richland, Washington, and the other near Baton Rouge. Louisiana. LlGO requires at least two widely separated detectors, operated in unison, to rule out false signals and confirm that a gravitational wave has passed through the earth.After the man went over how LIGO works we went into the big play room where we got to see science in a fun way.
The next week we went to CAMD.CAMD facility is a normal-conducting electron storage ring optimized for the production of soft X-rays and etc.Unfortunatley Center for Advanced Microstructures and Devices at the same time the LSU chancellor is saying CAMD may need to be shut down because of state budget cuts.If LSU does cut off its funding to CAMD, Chancellor Michael Martin said Friday, the hope is that Sutherland can attract enough federal grant funding to keep CAMD running self-sufficiently on Jefferson Highway so it can remain open.
The end