<p>Gravitational waves cause a stretch and squeeze in space-time. It has two polarizations Plus and Cross polarization. This serves as an axis for the stretch and squeeze when a gravitational wave hits a body. However, the order of stretching and squeezing is actually really small. It changes space-time by an order of $10^{-21}$m. That's around the diameter of a proton. There are Numerical relativity simulations where you can see for yourself how much the change in space-time occurs for a certain pair of mass collisions. </p>

<p>Check out the Waveforms for SEOBNR, Taylor etc. You might get a good idea. </p>

<p>FYI : Question belongs in <a href="https://physics.stackexchange.com/">physics.stackexchange</a>  </p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-10-30T06:22:45.007Z
2017-10-30T06:22:45.007Z
user-116
<p>Do we have a theory that can tell us how much change gravitational waves can make to space time. If it is infinite then I think any time we can see biggest change in space time and how much could it affect to humans?</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-10-30T05:53:20.693Z
Related: (1) [How large could gravitational waves get and what effect could they have on us?](https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/q/15026/10589) and (2) [How close would merging black holes have to be to feel gravitational waves?](https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/q/16353/10589)
Dhruv Saxena
<gravity><space-time><gravitational-waves>
Maximum disturbance to space time of gravitational waves, and will this affect humans?
Rahul Rabhadiya
# Maximum disturbance to space time of gravitational waves, and will this affect humans?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2017-10-30)

Do we have a theory that can tell us how much change gravitational waves can make to space time. If it is infinite then I think any time we can see biggest change in space time and how much could it affect to humans?

**Tags:** gravity, space-time, gravitational-waves

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Related: (1) [How large could gravitational waves get and what effect could they have on us?](https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/q/15026/10589) and (2) [How close would merging black holes have to be to feel gravitational waves?](https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/q/16353/10589)  

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2017-10-30. Score: 1 | Accepted answer

Gravitational waves cause a stretch and squeeze in space-time. It has two polarizations Plus and Cross polarization. This serves as an axis for the stretch and squeeze when a gravitational wave hits a body. However, the order of stretching and squeezing is actually really small. It changes space-time by an order of $10^{-21}$m. That's around the diameter of a proton. There are Numerical relativity simulations where you can see for yourself how much the change in space-time occurs for a certain pair of mass collisions.

Check out the Waveforms for SEOBNR, Taylor etc. You might get a good idea.

FYI : Question belongs in [physics.stackexchange](https://physics.stackexchange.com/)


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