A tale of two tiny windows

LIGO's gravitational wave sensitivity vs. the human eye's visible light — hover any band

Gravitational wave spectrum

10⁻¹⁸ Hz← log scale, 29 decades →10¹¹ Hz

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Electromagnetic spectrum

10³ Hz← log scale, 21 decades →10²⁴ Hz

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LIGO / gravitational waves

Full spectrum: ~29 decades
LIGO sensitive: ~10–10&sup4; Hz
≈ 3 of those 29 decades

Human eye / electromagnetic

Full spectrum: ~21 decades
Visible: ~4–7 × 10¹⁴ Hz
< 1 of those 21 decades